Context:

Recently the Karnataka High Court has suspended all mining licenses for stone quarrying within a 20-km radius of the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam under provisions of the Dam Safety Act, 2021.

About the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam

• Location: The Krishna Raja Sagar Dam is located near the confluence of river Kaveri with its tributaries, Hemavati and Lakshmana Tirtha, in Karnataka.
• It was designed by Sir M. Visvesvaraya. 
• Purpose: To store water from the Cauvery River to support agricultural activities in the surrounding regions.

Also Refer: The Dynamics Of The Kaveri River Water Dispute

Dam Safety Initiatives Taken By the Government of India

• Dam Safety Act 2021: It provides for an empowered institutional framework for dam safety both at the Centre and State and will also help in standardizing and improving dam safety practices across the country.
• Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP): It is used to improve the safety and operational performance of selected existing dams in the country.
• National Hydrological Project: It will help in gathering hydro-meteorological data on a real real-time basis.

Issue of Dam Safety in India

• Ineffective Compliance with the Dam Safety Act, 2021: Only  20 states have some institution that functions as the State Dam Safety Organisation. 
• No Regular Update: The Central Water Commission (maintains a record of dam failure events but the list is collected from states, and is not regularly updated).
• Dam Failure Analysis:  It is currently only addressed by the EIA notification issued under the Environment Protection Act, of 1986. 
  • However, there is no standardization in how dam failure analyses are conducted and reported.

Steps to Improve Dam Safety

• New acceptability criteria need to be evolved for the present and future dams.
• Dam break studies, glacial break studies, and preparation of emergency Action Plans.
• Analysis of structural behavior of Dams with special reference to implemented instrumentation systems in the dams
• Monitoring implementation of Dam Safety Legislation
• The technology upgradation for the rehabilitation of distressed dams in an efficient manner.

Continue To Reading: An Overview of Dam Safety in India

News Source: The Hindu

DOWNLOAD PDF