Dam realities

Much of the dams in India seem to be heavily mis-managed. The 2006 floods in Gujarat were mostly man-made: water was not released in time, and later when there was danger of the entire structure suffering damage, almost 30 times the regular amount was released. The result: a hundred people dead, and losses of over 21,000 crores.

But as this article shows, the negligence continues. Water is released or stopped without any prior notice. The farmers have to move their pumps closer to the river when the water levels go down, and later when the water is released, they find their pumps under several feet of water. Worse is when lives are lost, which could have easily avoided by being more responsible and having appropriate technology and systems in place.

If the authorities cannot manage dams at this scale, why do they even talk about massive projects such as the river-interlinking project. It just scares me to think of the complications there, which simply dwarf the complexities of the management of dams today.