Mega Hydel Project In Himalayas Steamrolls Objections
By Mubina Akhtar/thethirdpole.net
Work on one of India’s most contentious hydroelectricity projects restarted in October 2019 after a gap of nearly eight years, till the resumption was brought to a halt by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is every indication that once the Covid-induced national lockdown is lifted, work on the 2,000 MW Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project (SLHP) in the Himalayas will restart, ignoring all objections.
The anti-dam movement in the northeast Indian state of Assam is demoralised since much of its leadership is in jail. One of its most important leaders, Akhil Gogoi has been incarcerated for months on charges of alleged links with outlawed Maoist groups and agitating against India’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act. Work on the run-of-the-river project – which had been halted by state-wide movements over worries on downstream effects – was resumed after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) gave a go-ahead in July last year. “We have already completed 52% of the [remaining] work at the rate of 1-2% every month since last October,” A.N. Mohammed, consultant to NHPC (earlier called National Hydroelectric Power Corporation), told thethirdpole.net. NHPC is the government-owned company executing the project. Mohammed expects the project to be completed by the end of 2023. Started in 2005, about half of the construction work for SLHP had been completed before agitations brought it to a halt in December 2011. The central government had appointed an experts’ committee that had cleared the project again, only for the protestors to go to court with the charge that the committee was biased. The work was restarted after the NGT cleared the committee of this charge. Subansiri is one of the largest tributaries of the Brahmaputra, a transboundary river. The SLHP is diverting the waters of the Subansiri through five tunnels, after building a dam at Gerukamukh at the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. Partial change, but worries remain On resumption, one major recommendation of the experts is being carried out; a move that anti-dam activists see as a partial victory. The base of the dam is being widened from 171 to 271 metres. This will provide a more stable structure in this earthquake-prone region, and is also expected to improve its strength during floods, which are becoming more frequent and more severe as a result of climate change. But the worries about downstream impacts have not gone away. There have been studies, but activists are still demanding that their scope be expanded to include all socio-economic, cultural and environmental impacts of the projects up to the confluence of the Subansiri with the Brahmaputra around 100 kilometres downstream of the dam. They are also demanding a fresh cost-benefit analysis of the project.
The anti-dam movement in the northeast Indian state of Assam is demoralised since much of its leadership is in jail. One of its most important leaders, Akhil Gogoi has been incarcerated for months on charges of alleged links with outlawed Maoist groups and agitating against India’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act. Work on the run-of-the-river project – which had been halted by state-wide movements over worries on downstream effects – was resumed after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) gave a go-ahead in July last year. “We have already completed 52% of the [remaining] work at the rate of 1-2% every month since last October,” A.N. Mohammed, consultant to NHPC (earlier called National Hydroelectric Power Corporation), told thethirdpole.net. NHPC is the government-owned company executing the project. Mohammed expects the project to be completed by the end of 2023. Started in 2005, about half of the construction work for SLHP had been completed before agitations brought it to a halt in December 2011. The central government had appointed an experts’ committee that had cleared the project again, only for the protestors to go to court with the charge that the committee was biased. The work was restarted after the NGT cleared the committee of this charge. Subansiri is one of the largest tributaries of the Brahmaputra, a transboundary river. The SLHP is diverting the waters of the Subansiri through five tunnels, after building a dam at Gerukamukh at the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. Partial change, but worries remain On resumption, one major recommendation of the experts is being carried out; a move that anti-dam activists see as a partial victory. The base of the dam is being widened from 171 to 271 metres. This will provide a more stable structure in this earthquake-prone region, and is also expected to improve its strength during floods, which are becoming more frequent and more severe as a result of climate change. But the worries about downstream impacts have not gone away. There have been studies, but activists are still demanding that their scope be expanded to include all socio-economic, cultural and environmental impacts of the projects up to the confluence of the Subansiri with the Brahmaputra around 100 kilometres downstream of the dam. They are also demanding a fresh cost-benefit analysis of the project.
[View from Lower Subansiri Hydroelectricity project dam site, March 2020 (Image by: Chandan Kumar Duarah)]
“The project has been designed to absorb floods to the tune of 5,000 cumecs (cubic metres per second) over a 24-hour period,” Mohammed said. But residents downstream of another dam in a Brahmaputra tributary, the Ranganadi, say that dam managers release water without notice, catching millions of people off-guard. Once the SLHP is built and much of the water in the river moved through tunnels, thousands of farmers and fishers downstream of the dam stand to lose their livelihoods, according to environmental activist Pranjal Gogoi. The biggest problem with run-of-the-river projects is that it takes the water through tunnels for up to ten kilometres, so a long stretch of the river downstream of the dam dries up, till the mouth of the tunnel leads back to the river. Asked about this, Mohammed referred to NHPC’s 2008 “comprehensive downstream impact assessment study through the Guwahati University in association with Dibrugarh University and IIT Guwahati. The report submitted by the expert group in March 2011 made certain recommendations relating to design and safety of the dam and maintenance of minimum discharge in the river by running at least one unit continuously for sustenance of river ecology and ground water recharge. NHPC has taken up necessary protection measures for 30 km downstream from the dam site.” Gogoi countered, “What is the need of an embankment of 30 kilometres? If the dam authorities were sure about the safety of the dam, would they have cared to construct the INR 1.45 billion (USD 19 million) embankment?” For full story, go to thethirdpole.netLatest Videos
