Bharat Lal Seth
International Rivers
January 14, 2015
In November last year, International Rivers’ team in South Asia and the Legal Initiative for Forests & Environment (LIFE) organized a two-day knowledge-sharing workshop to discuss the social and environmental implications of hydropower in India and Bhutan. NGOs and officials working for Bhutanese government agencies had expressed a desire to learn from the experiences and implications of hydropower development in India. Five eminent members of civil society from India, each with decades of experience studying and analyzing the implications of hydropower on riverine ecosystems and the people dependent on them, attended the two-day workshop and shared their knowledge with the attendees.
The free flowing Punatsangchu river will be obstructed by two large dams, scheduled to be completed in 2018
Bharat Lal Seth
Bhutan, mostly a highland country with China to the north and India to its south, is well on its way to becoming a hydropower-driven economy. Work in progress suggests a shift from a largely agriculture and tourism-driven state to one with huge ambitions to dam its rivers for hydropower generation. But doubt is slowly tiptoeing in to the mindset of the Bhutanese government as to whether or not the current all-eggs-in-one-basket approach is sustainable or even sensible for their people and environment.
The workshop, held in Thimphu on November 4-5, was a closed-door affair. All government officials made it clear that they were attending the dialogue in their individual capacity. While this allowed greater freedoms in the sharing of information, it prohibits us disclosing the list of participants or even divulging information that can be traced to a particular official.
The Bhutanese are eager to become world leaders in hydropower, but are gradually coming round to learning from regional and international experiences the serious implications and potentially destructive nature of large hydropower dam projects. For more, read a new blog by Shripad Dharmadhikary, one of the five civil society experts from India who travelled with the International Rivers South Asia team to Bhutan in November 2014. The travelling contingent visited the construction sites of two large dams, Punatsangchu I & II hydroelectric projects, which are scheduled for completion in 2018.
The Indian civil society contingent visited the Punatsangchu river and dam sites
Bharat Lal Seth
The government of Bhutan has been monitoring closely the rivers that are being dammed in their quest to export electricity to power-hungry India. They have been tracking the issue of climate change by monitoring precipitation, glacial melt, and the changing geomorphology and hydrology of these river systems. We learned at the meeting that some glaciers are receding 20-30 meters each year, while in some instances there has been a 75-cm thinning of the ice sheet. Officials have done primary research work along with ‘repeat photography’ and collecting anecdotal evidence to track changes. But what has been most worrisome for glaciologists is the occurrence of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), wherein gushing walls of water unexpectedly break through ice barriers and obliterate land and whatever present infrastructure, particularly in the Punatsangchu River basin.
A 2012 report mentions that “Bhutan has 677 glaciers and 2,794 glacial lakes and over the last two centuries we have experienced more than 21 glacial lake outburst floods of which 4 outburst cases have been reported in the last forty years”. According to the report, 25 glacial lakes are ticking time bombs and have been identified as potentially dangerous. Given the remote locations of glaciers, officials of the government of Bhutan travel, often 3 days by foot, to monitor these lakes. The most recent outburst in 1994 caused massive destruction and as per a report affected “1,700 acres of agriculture and pasture land, washed away five mills and 16 yaks, destroyed six tons of foodgrains…and killed 22 people”. These climate change-induced GLOFs can impact downstream dams structures, too. Dam failure would be catastrophic not just in Bhutan, but also more than a hundred kilometers downstream in India. The environmental impact assessments for Punatsandchu I & II – which are not available in the public domain – in all probability do not consider these scenarios or risks. These studies aren’t available in spite of a right to information being instated in the constitution.
Confluence of Fochu (right) and Mochu (left), which together form the Punatsangchu. There was a devastating GLOF on the Fochu in 1994.
Bharat Lal Seth
Given that Bhutan is still in the early stages of exploiting its natural resource endowment, this seemed an opportune time for a workshop particularly for government officials to learn from the disastrous experiences of large hydropower projects in India. During the workshop, a short film was screened on the recent Uttarakhand flood disaster of 2013. The film showcased the destructive impacts of dams in exacerbating the floods. Bhutanese members questioned Himanshu Thakker of the South Asia Network for Dams Rivers and People (SANDRP) – who was involved in the filmmaking process – on how climate change risks could similarly have an impact on the Himalayan landscape in Bhutan.
Other risks of climate change include declining flows due to retreating glaciers, which can impact the economic feasibility, among others, of such projects. Such climate change-induced risks were discussed in the dialogue over both days. Dams for hydropower, both operational and under construction, together with those in the clearance stages will snap the longitudinal connectivity and result in inadequate flows of water, nutrients, sediments and biota downstream, significantly altering the ecology and biodiversity in the region.
The risks are higher in Bhutan given that the government seems to have put all their eggs in one basket. Hydropower is touted as the backbone of the economy, already accounting for roughly a quarter of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). After completion of all planned projects, more than half of the country’s GDP will be borne by the hydropower sector. Dr Sonam Wang, former head of the National Park Service in Bhutan, argued at the workshop for a diversification of income. He spoke freely, being neither in government nor public service. According to him, the salvation for the Bhutanese people lies in promotion of good agricultural practices given that nearly 70% of Bhutanese people are farmers. According to Wang, project proponents said that after the 336 MW Chukha and 1,020 MW Tala hydropower project there would be prosperity, but nothing of that sort has happened. Only the builders and contractors prospered. “The permanent solution lies on the farm,” he says.
Sonam Wang, former head of the National Park Service in Bhutan, at the workshop
Bharat Lal Seth
Given the emergent environmental and social governance systems of checks and balances in Bhutan, it can be useful for other South Asian countries to assist in strengthening governance mechanisms while scoping, appraising and approving hydropower projects that have adverse impacts on rivers and their ecosystems. Himanshu Thakker of SANDRP and environmental lawyer Ritwick Dutta shared with the participants India’s journey of environmental and social safeguards and presented a detailed account of the history and effectiveness of the rules and laws concerning environmental impact assessments (EIAs).
International practices suggest that water and energy resources planning must include a carrying capacity study of each river basin with cumulative and strategic impact assessment studies (be it social, environmental, ecological and biodiversity related) for more than one (or a cascade of) large hydropower project in a basin. Given that the costs of developing hydropower are often underestimated and the benefits overvalued, projects, as done in the past, cannot be proposed purely on hydrological grounds. These points were raised by the visiting delegation from India, which called for Holistic River Basin Plans that can give Bhutan the best of both worlds i.e. sustainable power generation and economic growth while protecting the Himalayan river and riverine ecosystems.
All participants agreed on the importance for both countries to share information and initiate a dialogue on transboundary rivers that flow between India and Bhutan. River stewardship can be improved by further strengthening the environmental governance structures in both countries. Officials suggested a follow-up workshop in 2015. The presence of government agencies as well as civil society and NGO expert representatives from both countries, it was agreed, would serve to deepen the democratic and rights movement, provide much needed expertise and intervention, as well as seek to improve transboundary cooperation between the two nations. “It is important that civil society groups engage in meaningful dialogue with respective governments and project proponents,” said a senior Bhutanese official.
Bhutan is a young democracy and NGOs/civil society must become constructively active in oversight of the government and its policies. Ritwick Dutta, the environment lawyer, also spoke of the need to have a greater understanding of the need to exercise one’s Right To Information, an Act that has been instituted in India for nearly a decade. Bhutan’s Right To Information Bill is pending before its Parliament for more than a year. The Bill is in furtherance of Bhutan’s constitutional provision that every citizen has right to information. A better informed civil society will be able to ask suitable and appropriate questions to the authorities on their development plans, and will provide much needed checks and balances.
