Indian Water Resources Society

22/03/2021

Reflections of a member on the occasion on world water day.

20/02/2021

The article starts with a great hope of a structured studied commentary on the subject but drifts away right from the beginning. The key findings have been placed without any study of data.
2. The very assumption that the dam has a design life of 100 years or 50 years is unfounded. The authors are confused about the life of reservoirs behind the dam with the structure of the dam. The structure of the dam has no design life. It stands for centuries. Concrete is young at an age of 100 years while embankments become part of the earth's surface as they age. So the life is about reservoirs that can be silted and become hydrologically unserviceable, that too, on economic criteria and again that too if not properly maintained. The use of public money particularly in populated countries like India is to keep the reservoirs in service condition for eternity to ensure water security and in turn food security.
3.(i) Very few dams have FAILED (uncontrollable water release) out of thousands of dams standing. The percentage won't come on many decimal places.
(ii) Out of the few dam failures, most of the dam failures recorded in India and the world over are in the first 5 years particularly during the first filling which some dam owners had not done under the supervision of designers. The new dam safety act passed by Loksabha and under consideration of Rajya Sabha provides for such first filling in the supervision of experts from proposed regulators.
(iii). Very few dams have ever failed after that period due to some very rare combination of natural forces. The axiom is that if a dam has stood for 100 years, there is no reason why it will not stand next year.
4. The author has completely mixed "dam safety issues of ageing dams" and risk associated with ageing dams. There may be some issues cropping up with time regarding structural or hydrological or other safety aspects of the dams but that is a very slow process, manifesting very visibly to the owners as well as those who maintain it and are addressed well before they become a threat to safety. Many of these issues are affecting only the gainful utilisation of water behind them in an economic and efficient manner which are not affecting any failure mode. That is why there is little chance of failure of existing large dams which are ageing.
5. To address these dam safety issues, there is already a mechanism working for decades where Dam safety Organisation under CWC is providing institutional support to the dam owners which are largely state govts or PSUs to follow protocols of regular pre-monsoon and post-monsoon inspection, periodic comprehensive review of safety aspects, the formation of rule curves, operation and maintenance manuals, keeping emergency preparedness etc.
6. To formalise this informal institutional framework (and not panicking that 5000 dams are on verge of failure because of ageing), the Government of India has proposed Dam Safety Legislation which will give legal authority to such institutional framework.
7. The dams and reservoirs need to function for as long as possible if not eternity to ensure the water and food security of the populous nations starving not only for basic needs but raising their aspirational life standards. All efforts of Dam Owners, State govern,ments and Central Government are directed to keep these dams safe, address all safety issues in time and ensure that instances of dam failure with age becomes "perfect zero" from "near zero"

India must analyse the costs versus benefits of its ageing dams, and conduct timely safety reviews in order to ensure safety of the structures, and the safety of those who inhabit the areas downstream

10/02/2021

A timely group discussion on the recent tragedy in Rishi ganga by top notch geologists, glaciologist and hydropower engineers. N K Mathur Former Member CWC is also there.

Besides the rampant destruction, the Rishi Ganga – Dhauli Ganga flash floods of 7th Feb have brought in their wake a deluge of speculations, comments, opinio...

24/12/2020

The last post was about the concept of a return period flood v/s risk in a design period. It was an explanation of formula about the probability of exceedance, non-exceedance and risk/ safety assurance.
This is about how to use this concept in decision making. Thetablle shows the risk for various return periods and various design periods.
Economy: reduce the severity of the flood, tolerate high risk.
Reduce risk: increase the severity of flood, sacrifice economy

17/12/2020

Probability Explained:
Probability v/s Risk
Do you know that a barrage designed for a 100 year return period (1% probability of exceedance in any year) has got a 63% probability of exceedance of that flood AT LEAST ONCE in its design life of 100 years? In other words, it has63% hydrological risk and only less than 37% safety assurance

14/10/2020

https://www.facebook.com/IITRoorkee.ICC/videos/1575004572699765/

30/09/2020

National Webinar on Enhancement of Irrigation Water Use Effeciency for Future Food Security - 14th October 2020, Time 4:00-7:00 PM

30/09/2020

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=780112582842615&id=166757557511457

Rainfall during SW Monsoon 2020

22/09/2020

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), NASA, the Desert Research Institute (DRI) and Google announced plans today to develop a new web application called OpenET to enable western U.S. farmers and water managers to accurately track water consumption by crops and other vegetation using data from satelli...

21/09/2020

19.09.2020 was the 60th anniversary of Indus Water Treaty.
An article from Indian Express
साभार उद्द्यत
इंडियन एक्स्प्रेस एवम लेखक
For the sole purpose of spreading the word without commercial interest and without agreeing or disagreeing with the facts or views.

The role of India, as a responsible upper riparian abiding by the provisions of the treaty, has been remarkable but the country, of late, is under pressure to rethink the extent to which it can remain committed to the provisions, as its overall political relations with Pakistan becomes intractable.

16/09/2020

https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/amp/news/power/hydro-power-requires-100-bn-investment-annually-roger-gill-international-hydropower-association/78131561?__twitter_impression=true

Interview with Roger Gill, President, International Hydropower Association

04/09/2020

4/4