Why India must stop building mega dams
To the State, these are symbols of achievement. To the affected, they symbolise humiliation and displacement
After he retired from the civil services, my father-in-law spent the last three decades of his life with his wife in Almora, Uttarakhand (UKD). They were part of the process that saw the state transform from a neglected and rustic backwater of Uttar Pradesh to a fast-developing state, currently rated as the sixth richest in India. But today, thoughtless development — such as building of bumper-to-bumper dams in its rivers — is proving to be a challenge for the state.
The subjectof dams is a touchy one in the state. Those of us who were writing in the 1990s have not forgotten the protests against the Tehri dam, which was built against the advice of ecologists, geologists and activists. I still remember that photos of beaming netas inaugurating the dam were circulated along with those of the dam oustees, who were given homes in the new Tehri city. But the displaced never forgot that their homes that were submerged.
After the 2013 floods, three government panels identified dam-building activities and the corresponding change in the flow of rivers as a major reason for the devastation. Yet the state is planning new ones.
Of late, however, several reports have been talking about how people are worried about a new mega dam proposed on river Sharada, which originates in Nepal and flowsthroughUKD.Thedam,whichwillbe the biggest in South Asia, is expected to generate 5,040 MW of power, and will service both India and Nepal, and cover an area larger than Chandigarh.
Theproposedcatchment areaofthedam will submerge 11,600 hectares (7,600 in India and 4,000 in Nepal). In India, 134 villages spread over Almora, Champavat and Pithoragarh will be submerged, displacing 30,000 people. It will destroy forests and lead to flawed rehabilitation of the displaced. Less land per family will also mean more migration of males to the plains, leaving women to fend for families and farms.
On August 17, when showers wrecked the roads, the state suddenly announced public hearings in Champhawat, Pithoragarh and Almora district and block headquarters on the issue. The hearings were held but public representation was poor because of two reasons: Many could not afford to buy expensive bus tickets to attend it, and many of those who did board buses failed to reach the venue due to rains and flooded roads.
Local reports suggest that the public hearings were unstructured and chaotic, and many locals were not allowed to speak or ask even basic questions regarding the proposal. Journalist Hridayesh Joshi reported that at the Pithoragarh hearing, activist Vimal Bhai’s microphone was disconnected to stop him from speaking. In Almora, journalist and activist Rajiv Lochan Sah was stopped by the local officials before he could complete his speech. CongressleaderHarishDhamicomplained that he was thrown out of the venue when he questioned the viability of the dam.
In a letter to the Board of Environmental Protection and Pollution Control Board and the organisers of the public hearing, Basant Singh Khaini, a representative of Sarayu Hydroelectric Power Producers (Almora), wrote that villagers are angry thatthe1MWpowergenerationplantalong the Sarayu river, which he and his group runs, will be submerged by the proposed 116kilometrelakeofthescheme. “Ourdam has provided 100 familiesamonthlyincome of Rs 12,000 and all our shareholders are local. This has not only generated power for our area but also stemmed the tide of male migration from our villages,” he wrote. Your hasty Jan Sunvais, the letter added, are a violation of the provisions of a 2006 notification (amended in 2008), which mandates that sufficient notice must be given to people before any public hearing is held. So stop whining to us about the spurt in our youth migrating to big cities and plains in search of jobs. Your mega project will only give this a further push. “If you were keen to talk to us, why did you hold the meetings during the monsoon months knowing well how hard movement becomes when the rains begin ?” it said.
The hill folk are poor but proud people. To governments, dams may be a mega achievement but for the people threatened with submersion, they remain a symbol of humiliation, barrenness and emptiness of existence. There is no doubt that Singh’s letter will get a bureaucratic reply. What use is a system that is only capable of defending itself?
AFTER 2013, THREE STATE PANELS BLAMED DAMBUILDING ACTIVITIES IN UTTARAKHAND FOR THE DEVASTATION. YET THE STATE IS PLANNING NEW ONES