Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP)

• Central Water Commission (CWC) under the Ministry of Water Resources River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has signed two separate MoUs with IIT Madras and IIS Bengaluru. This will help them for the procurement of specified equipment and software for enhancing their capability to support dam rehabilitation efforts of CWC.
• The Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has taken on board selected premier academic and research institutes, for capacity building in the areas of dam safety through World Bank assisted Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP).

About DRIP:

• The Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) has been taken up with loan assistance of the World Bank for rehabilitation and improvement of about 250 dams initially in seven States (namely Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand) and institutional strengthening and project management in Central Water Commission (CWC) and other Implementing Agencies; the actual number of dams under DRIP may vary owing to the addition / deletion of dams during implementation. DRIP was launched in 2012 for next six years
• The project consists of three components: a) Rehabilitation and Improvement of dams and associated appurtenances; b) Dam Safety Institutional Strengthening in participating States and CWC, and; c) Project Management.
• The Implementation Agencies for DRIP are Water Resources Departments and State Electricity Boards in the participating States and Central Water Commission at Central Level. State Implementing Agencies will have responsibility for implementation of works of dams under their charge and responsibility for coordination and management of such works within a State rests with the concerned State Project Management Unit (SPMU). Overall project oversight and coordination is to be carried out by Central Project Management Unit (CPMU) headed by the Project Director with assistance of an Engineering and Management Consultant. Consultant has to report to and take instructions from the Project Director, CPMU.

Analysis:

• The risk of failure of a dam is one of the inevitable concerns of civilization. Dam failures are typically caused by factors of age, construction deficiencies, inadequate maintenance, extreme weather or seismic events, and wrong operation.
• There have been about 200 notable failures of large dams in the world and more than 8000 people have died in these disasters.
• Since the dam owners in India – mostly state governments – have limited financial resources for rehabilitation of dams reported to be in distress, an urgent need has been felt for a centrally coordinated scheme to : (i) ensure rehabilitation and modernization of dams to bring them back to full standard of safety and operation; (ii) develop and implement adequate maintenance programs; (iii) ensure regular review of the status of the dams, both by the operator and by independent review panels, to examine problems relating to sustainable O&M of dams; (iv) formulate standards and guidelines and asset management systems to minimize future risks of dam failures; and (v) Strengthen institutional mechanism in states.
• In addition to above, need also has been felt for modernizing and strengthening the central level dam safety organization (in CWC) for providing state-of-the-art technical and managerial assistance to the Dam Safety Organizations of states and other dam-owning organizations.
• Dams have played a key role in fostering rapid and sustained agricultural and rural growth and development, which have been key priorities for the Government of India since independence. Irrigated agriculture and hydropower development have been major pillars of the government’s strategy to achieve these priority goals and to ensure food security.
• Rainfall, which occurs mainly in intense and unpredictable downpours within a four-month monsoon season, is of high temporal and spatial variability and does not meet year-round irrigation and other water demands. Except for the perennial Himalayan Rivers, almost all the river systems in India are seasonal.
• India ranks third in the world after China and the United States in terms of number of dams. Over the last fifty years, India has invested substantially in infrastructure necessary to store surface runoff in reservoirs formed by large, medium, and small dams with associated appurtenances. In India, about 80 % dams are more than 20 years old.
• Many large dams are ageing and have various structural deficiencies and shortcomings in operation and monitoring facilities. Few of them do not meet the present design standards – both structurally and hydrologically. Thus an increasing number of dams fall in the category where they need rehabilitation.
• Water being a state subject, the state governments are the owners of the dams within their territories, and as such any dam safety related initiatives by the Central Government would necessarily have to involve the state governments also.

By: Vishal