India and China are two most active countries in the world in terms of the number of dams in operation, under-construction and planned. The primary objectives of dam-building include irrigation, flood control and hydropower generation. However the principle motivation behind engineering of mega-dam projects in both India and China is the desire for economic development which they equate with large water reservoirs and high level of hydro power development. This is simply following the footsteps of America and Europe where similar level of mega-engineering took place in first part of the 20th Century.
China has the per capita water storage
of more than 2,000 cubic meters through dams. India has a per capita storage of
only 200 cubic meters per annum and figures for Pakistan are even very less
(Figure 1).[i]
China and India, both are heavily criticised by the environmentalists and human
right defenders within as well as outside the region for ecological losses and
large human displacements that the dam construction activity brings forth. China
with 22, 000 large dams[ii]
is the top dam-building nation in the world whereas India is third in the row
with over 4, 000 large dams only after the United States having 6,390 large
dams.[iii]
According to the National Energy Statistics, China's 230 GW of installed
hydropower capacity make it the world's largest hydroelectric power user.[iv]
Four countries – China, India, United States and Pakistan account for more than
50% of the world’s total irrigated area (Figure 2).[v]
China and India account for the largest number of people displaced due to dam
construction.[vi]
Figure 1
Water Storage Per
Capita
Source: World Bank,
2006.[vii]
Figure 2
Percentage of irrigated
Area from Dams
Source:
World Commission on Dams, 2000.[viii]
The construction of water reservoirs
especially the large dams[1]
became the central source of industrial and agricultural development worldwide
in the last century. According to the World Commission Report on Dams, besides
domestic and industrial benefits of dams, some 30–40% of irrigated land
worldwide now relies on dams and that dams generate 19% of world electricity.[ix]
However, higher temperatures and less snowpack are increasingly reducing flows
in the world basins. Less available water means declined capacity for
irrigation, energy generation and domestic consumption. Climate change is
challenging mega dam projects. Scientists have begun questioning the utility of
big dams with such weather extremes as one year flood followed by the next
year’s drying up. The rate of evaporation of water stored in reservoirs is also
predicted to increase with the warming up of global climate. It is not only
environment that pays the price for mega water projects. Mass human
displacements, loss of ecological habitat, huge investments and riparian
conflicts are some of the major costs of dam-building. It has recently become
an important consideration in developing countries including India and China to
mitigate these costs at least at the national level. Genuine concerns for
cross-border or international implications of dam-building have a low priority
in both the countries. One of the most important lessons that the two case
studies provide to Pakistan is that in order to achieve sustainable water
resource development, dam-building should only become a part of an integrated
water management policy.
Pakistan has a poor economy. As a single basin
country with fast growing population, her water needs for domestic, industrial
and irrigation purposes are multiplying every year with huge pressure on
limited water resources. The Indus Basin is well-known for its flow dependency
on rain and glacial melt water. New scientific investigations have indicated
vast differences in glacial change behavior across the Himalayas. While
glaciers for many of the Indian and Chinese river basins are retreating fast,
contributing rapid seasonal flows, glaciers feeding the Upper Indus Basin are
in fact expanding in mass under climate change influence. The dearth of
information and research on changing flow trends in Indus Basin warrants a
careful planning in proposing and constructing any new storage reservoirs.
Dam-building is not only about investment and engineering options, operational
issues such as reservoir safety, emergency preparedness and seasonal management
call for well-informed decision making.
Asma Yaqoob
Regional Studies,
Vol. XXXI, No.2, Spring 2013, Institute of Regional Studies, Islamabad
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[1] There are a
number of definitions of large dams. The International Commission on Large Dams
(ICLOD) uses the criterion of ‘height’ as defining a small, medium or large
dam. A dam higher than 15 m is classified as a
large dam. Many others refer to the gross storage capacity of a dam and
foundation design as a basis for the classification of the dams. The ICLOD
definition is used worldwide to define the size of a dam. For a detailed report
on the definition of large dams, see Shah and Dinesh Kumar, In the Midst of the
Large Dam Controversy: Objectives, Criteria for Assessing
Large Water Storages in the Developing World, Water Resource Management, 2008, No. 22, pp. 1799–1824.
[i] World Bank, Better Management of Indus Basin Waters: Strategic
Issues and Challenges. South Asia Region, Agriculture and Rural Development
Unit, Washington D.C, 2005.
[ii] China is the
country with the largest number of reservoirs in the world. However the
estimates vary from regional to international organisations. According to Chinese National Committee on Large Dams,
China has built 87,000 reservoirs all types by the end of 2006, of which are
more than 500 large reservoirs, more than 3,200 medium-sized reservoirs, and
small reservoirs of about 83,300. Zhao Chun, Jia Jinsheng, Zheng Cuiying,
Xia Lianqiang, Wenpeng, Management System Development of Dangerous
Reservoirs in China & Preliminary Statistics Analysis of Distress Causes, Chinese National Committee on Large Dams
(CHINCOLD): Beijing. (Accessed on 26 March 2012) The World Commission on
Dams Report 2000 estimates the total number of dams in China at 22,000.
[iii] World
Commission on Dams, Dams and Development:
A New Framework for Decision Making, Earthscan Publications Ltd: London,
2000, p. 9.
[iv] China sets 2012
hydropower target for rural areas, Interfax
China, 7 June 2012. http://www.interfax.cn/news/20356 (Accessed on 19
November 2012)
[v] World
Commission on Dams, op cit., ref.8,
p. 13.
[vi] Ibid., p.17.
[vii] Better Management of Indus Basin Waters –
Strategic Issues and Challenges, World Bank: Islamabad, 2006. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPAKISTAN/Data%20and%20Reference/20805819/Brief-Indus-Basin-Water.pdf (Accessed on 8
March 2013)
[viii] World
Commission on Dams, op cit., ref. 8,
P. 13.
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