REGIONAL PLANNING

Piter Biswas

REVIEW OF REPORT ON DAM BUILDING IN THE HIMALAYAN

REGION

REGIONAL DELINEATION

• The Himalayas are the mountain ranges that separate the Indian sub-continent from the Tibetan Plateau.

• It includes the Karakoram, the Hindu Kush, and a host of minor ranges extending from the Pamir Knot.1

• The Himalayas range from the Indus River Valley to the Brahmaputra River Valley, they form an arc 2,400 kilometres long, which varies in width from 400 km in the western Kashmir-Xinjiang region to 150 km in the eastern Tibet-Arunachal Pradesh region.

• The Himalayas stretch across six countries: Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, China and Afghanistan.

REGIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

• It is the source of some of the largest rivers in Asia – the Indus, Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Irrawaddy. Glacial and snow melt is an important source of the flows of these rivers.

• The rivers 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.

• Himalayan rivers have large potential to generate hydroelectric power. Eg- the Bhakra Nangal project in India and the Tarbela project in Pakistan.

Social and EnvironmentalImpacts

• ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS

The Himalayas are recognized not only as a hotspot of biodiversity but also for their fragility. Conservation International96 lists the Himalayas among the biodiversity hotspots of the world and says that Conservation International also says that of the estimated 10,000 species of plants in the Himalayas, about 3,160 are endemic, as are 71 genera. Furthermore, five plant families are endemic to the region.98 About 300 mammal species have been recorded in the Himalayas, including a dozen that are endemic

GREEN HOUSE GAS EMISSION

Hydropower is often portrayed as an important weaponin the fight against climate change, claiming that itproduces very small amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG)emissions.110• Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE)• show that the methane emissions from Indian big dams• contribute 18.7% of the total GHG emissions in India.112

DAMS OF HIMALIAN REGION

Implications of climatic change on dams (Overview)

• An increase in the intensity of precipitation, leading to higher flows and floods

• An increase in glacial and snow melt leading to an initial increase in river flows and floods

• Subsequent disappearance or significant depletion of glaciers and snow leading to depleted flows

• Change in the seasonal distribution of total flows

Implications of Climate Change for Dam Safety

• Most dams are designed based on historical data of river flows have effectively been destroyed.

• Extreme precipitation events like glaciers can lead to large floods.

• The safety of dams in view of the increased flows/floods is a major cause of concern.

• Bigger floods are likely to lead to higher backwaters if a dam is survived, increasing the areas affected by submergence.

• Another cause for concern is the potential increase in the sedimentation in the rivers due to climate change.

Dig Tsho Glacial Lake Outburst Flood, Nepal

Responses of Civil Society andAffected People’s Groups

Protest against the Teesta Dams in Sikkim, India, 2007

Alternative Approaches

• Combinations of demand-side management• Efficiency in generation, supply, transmission and energy use• Renewable sources of energy are at the core of most of these

suggestions.

Meeting to discuss the potential impacts of the planned West SetiHydropower Project, in Nepal, 2007. It is estimated that 15,000people will be adversely affected by this project. Photo: YukiTanabe.

Conclusion

• The Himalayas store vast amounts of water, and with their high slopes, the fast-moving rivers present huge potential for generating hydropower.

• Projects are likely to have huge social, environmental and cultural impacts, impacts that will be especially harsh on locals, tribal people, farmers and others living in the remote valleys of the Himalayas.

• These projects threaten not only livelihoods but often the very identity and culture of these people.

• The downstream impacts of the proposed projects will also be serious.

• India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan have initiated massive plans to build several hundred dams to realize this potential.

Thank You