A Critical Look at the Report of the World Commission on Dams in the Context of the Debate on Large Dams on the Himalayan Rivers

Abstract

In the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) basin in south Asia, the Himalayan rivers offer a large number of sites suitable for the construction of storage dams to collect part of their very large monsoon run-off and generate a good amount of hydropower. A series of large dams proposed by the governments are facing strong opposition on social and environmental grounds. Additional water and hydropower supplies are needed badly to ensure economic development in this basin, where poverty is a widespread problem. The report of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) has been analysed in this paper to explore how much it can provide a new framework for decision making for these dams. It has been found that there are some important technical gaps in the WCD report, as a result of which it cannot help in answering some crucial technical questions raised by the debate on dams on the Himalayan rivers of the GBM basin.

Lessons learned from the World Commission on Dams

“…Some guidelines were theoretically or methodologically too difficult to implement (Bandyopadhyay 2002) and, in fact, only six of the 26 guidelines were truly ready for implementation in some countries (Fujikura and Nakayama 2002). 24 If all of the 26 guidelines would have to be complied with as a 'package', no large dam would be actually possible.…”

Powering or sharing water in the Brahmaputra River basin

“…Moreover, these bilateral treaties address specific and largely localized aspects of the broad issue of integrated water management. Unlike in other international river basins, there is no institutional mechanism in place to address the issue of water management at the river basin level (Bandyopadhyay, 2002). Thus, in spite of bilateral arrangements, the data sharing mechanism between riparians in the Brahmaputra basin is vague and does not follow any standard procedure.…”

“…There are ongoing discussions among the political leaders and other stakeholders on regional multilateral cooperation for water management of the Brahmaputra basin, but very little progress has been made (Bandyopadhyay, 2002). At the bilateral level, there is a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between India and China (the 2013 MoU, which was signed after the expiry of the 2007 agreement on the Provision of Hydrological Information on the Yarlung Zangbo/Brahmaputra River in Flood Season by China to India) and an agreement between India and Bangladesh on hydrological data sharing (India & Bangladesh, 1972).…”

Climate Change Resilience and Adaptation: Perspectives from a Century of Water Resources Development

“…This remains an important development model (e.g. proposals for economic development in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin (Bandyopadhyay, 2002)), and, although three countries (China, USA and India) dominate, some 45,000 large dams had been constructed in over 150 countries by 2000. As a result, in less industrialized economies irrigation is often the largest use of water -typically 80 per cent or more (Anand, 2007).…”