Hydropower Projects in Himalayas: Boon or bane? : Daily Current Affairs

GS-3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment.

Key phrases - Himalayas, Tehri dam, Hydropower

Why in news-

Centre has filed an affidavit in SC to allow 7 hydropower projects in Uttarakhand.

Analysis:

Himalayan system and its importance

Hind Kush, the world’s third pole is 3,500 km long spread over 8 countries in South Asia and home to 10 major river basins.
Home to 4 global biodiversity hotspots, several important bird areas, and hundreds of mountain peaks. It provides ecosystem services to nearly 2 billion.
Home to 1/10 of world’s population-also site of cryosphere changes-The HKH region form the largest area of permanent ice cover outside of the North and South Poles, and so are often referred to as “Third Pole”.
Uniqueness of bio-physical and socio-cultural diversity and rich heritage of Indigenous Knowledge.
Unique wildlife assemblage of global conservation value-snow leopard, red panda-government released Snow Leopard Population Assessment like tiger, elephant etc.

Is it under threat?

HKH region has lost 15% of its glaciers since the 1970s, and in a best-case scenario, will lose another 15-20% by 2100.
Winter snowfall is decreasing and winter days are shrinking too. In the past five to six decades, the number of cold nights per year has been declining by one night per decade.
Due to lack of economic opportunities, changing social structures and climate change there has been proliferation of ghost villages in region specially in Uttarakhand due to migration-social demographic alienation.
Nearly 30% of springs, crucial to water security of people in Himalayas are drying and 50% have reported reduced discharge as per NITI Ayog report.
Problems such as human-wildlife conflicts, forest fires, drying of springs and land degradation through waste accumulation.
Development investments and interventions made in IHR are not harmonized or synchronized so there is a lack of convergence among a host of planning and implementing institutions.

Are Dams contributing to the danger?

Over the past 20 years, both China and India have been competing with each other to build hydroelectric dams in this ecologically fragile and seismically vulnerable area. There are two hydropower projects in the works in Arunachal Pradesh on the tributaries of the Brahmaputra: the 600 MW Kameng project on the Bichom and Tenga Rivers and the 2,000 MW Subansiri Lower Hydroelectricity Project.
High seismic zones coincide with areas of high population concentration in the Himalayan region where landslides and glacial lake outburst floods are common. 2015 Gorkha earthquake of magnitude 7.8 in central Nepal resulted in huge losses in the hydropower sector. Nepal lost about 20% of its hydropower capacity consequent to the earthquake.
Main mechanisms that contributed to the vulnerability of hydropower projects were found to be landslides, which depend on the intensity of seismic ground shaking and slope gradients. Heavy siltation from giant landslides expected in the project sites will severely reduce the water-holding capacity and life expectancy of such dams.
Massive amounts of silt carried by the river would get blocked by dams leading to a fall in the quality of soil and eventual reduction in agricultural productivity. Brahmaputra basin is one of the world’s most ecologically sensitive zones. It is identified as one of the world’s 34 biological hotspots. Reduction in flow of waters downstream will have negative consequences of the flora and fauna of the surrounding ecosystem.
Vishnugadh project damaged in the February 2021 Floods too has been allowed to progress even though 200 plus people died due to the criminal negligence of there not being a Disaster Warning System.
It is not yet known how reservoirs with their water load would alter the existing stresses and strains on the earth’s crust in the long term, impacting the frequency of earthquakes and their mechanisms.

Status of dams in Indian Himalayas and previous disasters

India has 4,407 large dams, the third highest number in the world after China (23,841) and the USA (9,263). Tehri Dam in Uttarakhand is the highest dam in India built on Bhagirathi river.
Activists have raised concerns that two projects, Singoli Bhatwari and Phata Bhuyang, which were specifically linked to the Kedarnath Tragedy (2013) have been allowed.
On the other side of the border, China has already completed 11 out of 55 projects that are planned for the Tibetan region.
Recent Tapovan disaster where Vishnugadh was breached due to slide from Nanda devi glacier

Why are these dams important?

Resource Constraints: India, which is home to close to 18 per cent of the world’s population, has only 4 per cent of its water resources. These projects help with sustainable management of water resources.
Dams are the sources of clean power. Many countries have embraced dams as a way to reduce reliance on expensive fossil fuels.
India is endowed with large hydropower potential of 1,45,320 MW of which only about 45,400 MW has been utilized so far. Only about 10,000 MW of hydropower has been added in the last 10 years.
Importance of hydropower is increasing even more as the country has targeted to add 160 GW of intermittent Solar and Wind power by 2022 and 40% of the total capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030 to honour its Nationally Determined Contribution.
Irrigation: Dams and waterways store and provide water for irrigation so farmers can use the water for growing crops.
Prevent Flooding: Dams, if planned well, help in preventing floods. They catch extra water so that it doesn’t run wild downstream.

Way ahead

Himalayan River Commission: The possibility of a Himalayan River Commission involving all the headwater and downstream countries needs to be explored.
It is recommended that there should be no hydropower development beyond an elevation of 2,200 metre in the Himalayan region.
Building a decentralised network of check dams, rain-capturing lakes and using traditional means of water capture have shown effective results in restoring the ecological balance while supporting the populations of the regions in a sustainable manner.
Carbon neutrality should not be at the expense of the environment.
The upper Himalayas could be converted into a nature reserve by an international agreement.
Rather than engaging in unsustainable dam-building activities, India and China would be well advised to disengage from military adventurism.

Source: Economic Times