Icy flood that killed dozens had been feared for years
NEW DELHI » Hundreds of rescuers dug through slushy debris and fast-flowing, icy water Friday in a search for survivors after a glacial lake overflowed and burst through a dam in India's Himalayan north, a disaster that many had warned was possible for years.
The flood began in the early hours Wednesday, when water overflowed a mountain lake. It smashed through a major hydroelectric dam downstream and then poured into the valley below, where it killed at least 41 people, carrying bodies miles away, and forced thousands to flee their homes.
It wasn't clear what triggered the deadly flood, the latest to hit northeast India in a year of unusually heavy monsoon rains. Experts pointed to intense rain, and a 6.2-magnitude earthquake that struck nearby Nepal on Tuesday afternoon, as possible contributors.
But the disaster also underscores a climate dilemma that pits local environmental activists who say dams in the Himalayas are too dangerous against authorities pursuing a national green energy agenda.
The design and placement of the 6-year-old Teesta 3 dam, the largest in Sikkim state, were controversial from the time it was built. A report compiled by the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority in 2019 had identified Lhonak Lake as “highly vulnerable” to flooding that could breach dams and cause extensive damage to life and property.
India is counting on hydroelectric dams to meet ambitious clean energy goals that are part of a global effort to slow climate change. The government aims to increase India's hydro power by half by 2030, to 70,000 megawatts, and has approved hundreds of new dams across the country's mountainous north.
But the growing frequency and intensity of extreme weather, driven in part by climate change, puts many dams and the people living downstream from them at risk. Last month, dam breaches caused by Storm Daniel caused devastating damage to the city of Derna in Libya.
Rising temperatures also cause glaciers to melt faster, putting more pressure on dams. A 2016 study found that over a fifth of the 177 dams built close to Himalayan glaciers in five countries were at risk from glacial lakes, including the Teesta 3 dam.
“We knew that this was coming,” said Gyatso Lepcha, general secretary of Affected Citizens of Teesta, an environmental organization based in Sikkim, wrote in a statement that called for a safety review of all dams in the state.
The Teesta 3 hydropower project, built on the Teesta River, took nine years and cost $1.5 billion to construct. The project was capable of producing 1,200 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 1.5 million Indian homes — and began operation in 2017.
But local activists argued that the dam didn't have enough safety features.