Joshimath sinking: Why environmentalists want India to rethink its hydropower projects

Aerial view of the Tapovan Vishnugad Hydropower Project at Joshimath, in Uttrakhand, in 2009. (Photo credit: Ministry of Power)

Earlier this week, the Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging the Centre to take over relief and rehabilitation work in Joshimath. It also demanded the scrapping of NTPC's Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project.

Locals of the subsidence-hit hill town had first heard a loud rumble and woken up to see deep cracks running down the walls of their homes on January 4, 2023. Since then, over 850 buildings have developed cracks, of which 165 are located in the danger zone.

Also read: 46 years on, there is mountain of studies but Joshimath is still sinking

The sinking of Joshimath has reignited a debate about the construction of hydropower projects in the Himalayan region. Environmentalists and activists, including Ravi Chopra, Dr Anil Prakash Joshi and Vimlenu Jha, say that it should prompt a rethink about building more new projects in mountain areas.

But why have hydel projects become the centre of this debate? Let’s find out.

The push for hydropower in India

Hydropower today is thought to have a key role in the transition to clean energy. It produces massive quantities of low-carbon electricity and has unmatched capabilities for providing storage. Several hydropower plants can ramp up their electricity generation rapidly compared with power plants fuelled by nuclear energy, coal or natural gas. This makes it an attractive option.

In 2021, the IEA (International Energy Agency) remarked that hydropower is the forgotten giant of clean electricity, and it needs to be put squarely back on the energy and climate agenda if countries are serious about meeting their net-zero goals.

India too is trying to boost hydropower production to meet its target of clean energy capacity of 500 gigawatts (GW) by 2030. Hydropower today accounts for about 11.9 percent, or 46 GW, of the country’s total power generation capacity - enough to provide nearly twice the peak power demand of Uttar Pradesh.

As per the Central Water Commission, India has 5,264 large dams. Further, 437 large dams are under construction. To develop this particular power sector, the Union Cabinet also declared large hydropower plants as "renewable energy" resources in 2019. Thus, developers can avail of incentives such as easier debt repayment terms and funding for associated infrastructure like roads and flood defences.

So far so good, right?

Not quite. According to experts, hydropower dams pollute and precipitate natural disasters. Studies (here and here) show that they are major emitters of methane, which is 28-34 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Experts also claim that our understanding of what is clean is limited to a narrow notion that dams do not emit smoke. The social and ecological damage that is caused by them such as deforestation, loss of biodiversity and displacement of communities, is largely neglected.

To this end, a month before COP26 in Glasgow, more than 300 organisations across 69 countries had urged governments not to use climate funds to finance “false climate solutions” such as hydropower. They urged that these dams be removed from all the Nationally Determined Contributions targets pledged under the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat global warming. The appeal included 26 environment groups from India.

The Himalayan region is particularly ecologically sensitive. Large-scale constructions here - on the surface and underground - make an already vulnerable terrain even more unsteady. Uttarakhand, for instance, which is prone to flash floods and landslides, has more than 10 operational hydropower projects, with more being built.

A Supreme Court-appointed committee looking into the 2013 floods in the Kedarnath area, had recommended scrapping of at least 23 hydropower projects in the fragile mountainous region. It argued that dams significantly amplified the damage caused by natural disasters here.

A cost-benefit analysis of these dams is also needed. About 3,700 large dams across India could lose up to 26 percent of their original storage capacity due to sedimentation build-ups by 2050, as per a new study by the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health. India’s Central Water Commission had already reported in 2015 that among 141 large reservoirs over 50 years old, one-quarter had already lost at least 30 percent of their initial storage capacity.

So, what now?

At the moment, projects have been stopped in the Joshimath area. A few other states have also raised concerns. For instance, the Himachal Pradesh forest department has raised environmental concerns over approving hydroelectric projects on the Ravi river basin in Chamba valley. Experts, too, feel that since the Himalayas are one of the youngest mountain ranges, in a high seismic zone and prone to extreme climate events, all projects undertaken should be reassessed for their impact on the environment.

Future projects, in India and around the world, also need to be carefully planned and developed. For a recent study, scientists at the University of Leeds have already analysed data from the network of 2.89 million rivers worldwide to identify where hydropower stations could be sited with limited environmental impact.

It is hard to deny the benefits of hydropower and its contribution to the global public good of carbon reduction. A cumulative detailed assessment of these projects, however, can help lessen their impact on the local environment and populations dependent on it.