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Thread on Geological Surprises during Dam Construction in India
1, Dulhasti Hydropower Dam, J&K: In 1992, the tunneling work had to be suspended when a major geological fault was encountered. This was indicative of the way NHPC had glossed over geological risks during proposal.
1, Dulhasti Hydropower Dam, J&K: In 1992, the tunneling work had to be suspended when a major geological fault was encountered. This was indicative of the way NHPC had glossed over geological risks during proposal.
2, Kurichhu Hydropower Dam, Bhutan: This was built by NHPC on a turnkey contract. On 10th July 2004, a flood warning centre at Audsho, Bhutan broke the news of the Tsatistu lake (formed by landslide in 2003) getting breached at 4:20 am and the flood hit the Kurichhu at 5:20 am.
3, Teesta II Hydropower Dam, West Bengal: Concerns express by Geological Survey of India experts on the Geo-Technical Investigations of Teesta III & IV dams were ignored while granting environmental clearance to the project. GSI experts had identified active & dormant landslides
Loktak Hydropower Dam, Manipur: Methane gas was noticed during tunneling work in Dec 1972. In July 1974, two workers met with burn injuries due to inflammable gas. On 25 Jan 1975, two major explosion took place due to ignition of methane gas, causing death of 16 workers in tunnel
3, Loktak Hydropower Dam, Manipur: In 1983, the very first year of its commissioning, the project suffered a setback when a portion of tunnel collapsed due to heavy flood on 25th July, resulting in stoppage of power generation, rerouting at Rs 4.13 crore & abandoning old tunnel
4, Chamera I Hydropower Dam, Himachal Pradesh: Two workers were buried alive and two others were seriously wounded in a landslide at Chaura village on the bank of Chamera reservoir on 1st August 2003.
Teesta IV Hydropower Dam, West Bengal: At public hearing for its env clearance at Kalijhora in Jan 2005, a former Dy DG of GSI, Shri Devashish Chatterjee raised concerns about active and dormant landslides around dam site. On 27th July 2007 torrential rains damaged Teesta III&IV.
5, Rangtang Hydropower Dam, Himachal: On 23rd Aug 2007, the news portal Himvani reported that entire Spiti valley plunged into darkness following collapse of a dam that was rebuilt just three years back. This news had marked the fourth such accident at dam sites in monsoon 2007!
To read more about this and other accidents at dam sites during 2007 that I discussed then, please read: http://www.indiatogether.org/dambreach-environment
6, Ponmudi Hydropower Dam, Kerala: On 17th Sept 2007, one of the two penstock pipes carrying the reservoir water to Panniyar power house burst, killing eight labourers. Accidents had continued at such alarming rates, that we had to revisit whether we had a good Dam Safety law.
So here is another article that talks about the framework on dam safety in India and how Disaster Management Act, 2005 could be made to work better. While writing this article, I had spoken to Thissur based activist late Latha Anantha multiple times. http://www.indiatogether.org/dambreak-environment
