Too big to fail
The Ratnagiri dam failure highlights the safety risks posed by large dams amid official negligence.The dam breach in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district leaving 15 people dead and at least eight more missing is a wakeup call on poor dam management practices. After two years of villagers complaining about major leakages in the earthen dam, plastered with cement, authorities apparently conducted repairs two months ago. But these now appear to be stopgap measures given how nearly a third of the 308-metre-long dam was washed away amid copious rainfall and the reservoir filling to capacity. The heavy loss of lives and property demands that accountability be fixed.
Failure to do so will only intensify the impunity and negligence that devalues human life. Unlike other unsafe public structures like buildings where risks are localised, failed big dams threaten everything downstream, including other dams, and can have catastrophic domino effects. According to Central Water Commission, India has 5,264 large dams in operation, of which 75% are over 25 years old and 164 big dams more than 100 years old. Until 2018, there were 36 large dam failures, possibly making Tuesday’s Tiware breach the 37th failure.
Last year’s Kerala floods were also attributed to poor dam management practices. With extreme weather phenomena making short-term rainfall predictions a challenge despite improved weather forecasting, vigilant dam management is critical for flood mitigation. The Dam Safety Bill 2018 sought to create a legal and institutional framework to ensure proper inspection, surveillance, operation and maintenance of dams but is stalled over some states fearing a central takeover of their dams. These disputes need to be quickly resolved in the interest of the primary stakeholders: citizens at risk. Maharashtra, accounting for the largest chunk of India’s big dams – 2,069 dams – also needs to rethink the utility of big dams amid recurrent droughts which demands age-proof, cost-effective and eco-friendly rainwater storage structures.
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