Hydropower Projects and Big Dams in the Northeast:

Issues and Concerns

Chandan Mahanta
Professor & Head, Centre for the Environment
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India
mahantaiit@gmail.com
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Brahmaputra Basin:
at a glance

Drainage are: 580,000 km2

In India

Not reflective of mainland India;

People disadvantaged, less educated;
Political and social marginality;
Small ethnic minority;
Especially vulnerable to negative
consequences
 Feared  outcome  of  Hydropower  development  in  NER

• Geographical  disadvantage:  Compounded  disasters

• Inequitable  benefit
• Downstream  displacement
• Loss  of  cultural  heritage
• DisrupEon  of  community  networks
• DeforestaEon
• Loss  of  unique  biodiversity
• Challenge  of  transiEon  to  alternaEve  livelihood
• Channel  sedimentaEon
• Sloppy  EIA
 Other issues for development of
hydropower in the Northeastern region
• Multi purpose dams
• Flood storage as integral part of hydropower
projects in Arunachal Pradesh
• Dam safety
• Environmental aspects
• Availability of power grid system
• International transmission routes
• Electrification of villages
• Job creation
• Monetary compensation
• Improved  living  and  public  health  condiEons  to  affected
communiEes
• Community involvement in decision making
• Preference on small/mini/micro/pico hydel projects in
a targeted manner
• Ensure that socio economic security, livelihood
security, water security, and food security is not
endangered
• Comprehensive  review  of  alternaEves  to  mega  dams
• Monitoring  impacts  and  acEviEes  during  construcEon  and
operaEon
• Greater  risk  of  downstream  communiEes  must  be
recognized  and  accounted  for  in  working  out
compensaEon  package  for  Project  Affected  People
• A  comprehensive  risk  compensaEon  plan  with  consent
and  acceptance  of  the  community,  and  sustainable  long-­‐
term  soluEons  to  protect  the  livelihoods  and  social
cohesion  of  the  community
 Conclusions

• The  quesEon  that  needs  to  be  asked  is  whether

NE  with  its  profound  geo-­‐environmental  risks
and  its  fragile  ecosystem  can  sustain  the  level
of  hydropower  acEviEes  that  is  currently
underway  and  is  being  envisaged
• “Building  more  dams  is  potenEally  a  zero  sum
game  in  several  Indian  basins”
• Given  the  Himalayan  geology,  the  hard  truth  is
that  such  an  unprecedented  number  of  project
with  unprecedented  scales  can  easily  turn  to  be
a  blunder
Distrust  by  local  stakeholders  of  current  approaches  and
their  benefits  to  common  people:  ‘Trust  deficit’
‘Credibility  deficit’  and  ‘Adequacy  deficit’
Institutional mechanism – an umbrella organization-beyond
NEWRA: NHRI, NEEMA
Regional-­‐scale  scienEfic  invesEgaEon  considering  the
cumulaEve  risk  of  all  projects  and  carrying  capacity  of  BB