Environmental Disaster: Dam Building in the Himalayas


Recent years have seen a renewed push for building  dams in the Himalayas. Massive plans are underway in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan6 to build several hundred dams in the region, with over 150,000 Megawatts (MW) of additional capacity proposed in the next 20 years in the four countries. If all the planned capacity expansion materialises, the Himalayan region could possibly have the highest concentration of dams in the world.  This dam building activity will fundamentally transform the landscape, ecology and economy of the region and will have far-reaching impacts all the way down to the river deltas.

Submergence of lands, homes, fields and forests on a large scale will displace hundreds of thousands of people. Damming and diversion of rivers will severely disrupt the downstream flows, impacting agriculture and fisheries and threatening livelihoods of entire populations. Degradation of the natural surroundings and a massive influx of migrant workers will have grave implications for the culture and identity of local people, who are often distinct ethnic groups small in numbers. As the entire region is seismically active  these dams face high risks of catastrophic failures due to earthquakes.

The Himalayas are undoubtedly a world heritage. All 14 of the highest peaks in the world, called the “eightthousanders” (peaks with heights greater than 8,000 metres) are in the Himalayas.

The rivers that originate in the Himalayas provide sustenance, livelihoods and prosperity to millions of people living in a vast area that stretches from the Indus Basin plains of Pakistan in the west to Bangladesh in the east.

By far the most serious issue, however, is that of climatechange and its impact on the Himalayas. The impact of globalwarming is already being felt much more in the Himalayas than in other parts of the world. This is resulting in the accelerated melting of glaciers and the depletion of the massive water store of the region.

Some of these dams – including the 3,000 MW Dibang project in India, the 1,000 MW Tala project in Bhutan, and the US$12.6 billion Diamer-Bhasha Dam in Pakistan – are among the world’s largest and most expensive planned dams.

A dam-building boom in the Himalayas in times of global warming is like investing billions of dollars in high-risk, non-performing assets. In the Himalayas, "melting glacier water will replenish rivers in the short run, but as the resource diminishes, drought will dominate the river reaches in the long term

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, ICIMOD, in Nepal and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change agree that global warming will also lead to more storms and floods, especially in tropical and mountainous regions.

The sudden bursting of glacial lakes is another major concern for the safety of planned dams, and ultimately the rivers and peoples of the Himalayas. Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are a recent phenomenon. As glaciers in high-altitude regions such as the Himalayas melt, they can form large lakes behind temporary dams of ice and rock. When these moraine dams collapse, millions of cubic meters of water are released, resulting in massive flash floods.

Uttarakhand’s dam-building spree on the Bhagirathi, Alaknanda and Ganga will eventually ‘kill’ the nation’s lifeline. The Bhagirathi and Alaknanda meet at Devprayag to form the Ganga. According to a 2009 government list, 558 dams are under construction or being surveyed in the state.

Their fears and concerns have been corroborated by a recent Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report. Yet to be placed in the Assembly, the report is severely critical of the bumper-to-bumper dams and state that large stretches of the river will dry up if these hydroelectric power projects (HEP) are built. The issue has become controversial.

"GANGA AHVAAN" in their manifesto have stated that today the Government is in the process of building a cascade of dams along the Ganga, commencing near her source in the pristine Himalayas at GANGOTRI. These projects will join the Tehri Dam and the other dams right upto Haridwar. Thus the entire stretch of the Ganga from Gangotri to Haridwar will get enmeshed and entrapped in a series of dams. This will be clear from the following map of the Ganga catchment area published by "GANGA AHVAAN".

According to the "GANGA AHVAAN" these projects entail sheer destruction of the Himalayas through blasting, drilling and pulling down mountain slopes in the process of building tunnels and power houses. It involves cutting forests, trees, dirtying pristine and untouched portions of our mountains and scarring an entire valley permanently. Finally, since the projects are consecutive it entails pushing the entire Ganga River underground through dark, sunless tunnels without a break.

According to GANGA AHVAAN, if the Holy Ganga River in the entire stretch from Gangotri to Haridwar is to be saved, then the following projects have to be stopped immediately:

1. Bhairon Ghati I under consideration (just 9km from Gangotri)
2. Bhairon Ghati II under consideration (directly following the above)
3. Loharinag Pala construction started
4. Pala Maneri about to start (directly after the above)