With the purpose of increasing awareness about dam safety measures in the country and finalisation of Emergency Action Plan (EAP) a stakeholders consultation Workshop was organised by Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department in collaboration with Central Water Commission was held recently at Krishnagiri dam site, district Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu. Over 150 delegates representing the stakeholders involved with relief and rescue operations and representatives from National Disaster Management Authority, State Disaster Management Authority, India Meteorological Department, State Health, Fire, Police, Revenue and Road Departments and Railways participated in the Workshop.

Shri NK Mathur, Member, Central Water Commission presided over the Workshop and highlighted the need for the preparation of EAP for each dam and involvement of all agencies in ensuring effective relief and rescue operations. The brief backgrounds of few of the national as well as international dam disasters were also discussed, along with step by step process for evolving a sound and bankable EAP document.

India ranks third globally with 5254 large dams in operation and 447 large dams under construction. About 4% of these large dams (209) are over 100 years old and about 17% (876 dams) are more than 50 years old. Many of these dams are facing varying degrees of inadequacies in meeting the current standards of dam health and safety due to various reasons. The ongoing Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) under the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation is facilitating the rehabilitation of about 198 large dam projects in seven States, in addition to the institutional strengthening of the implementing agencies for sustainable dam safety initiatives.

Even though our dams are quite safe, in the rare event of a dam failure, extensive damage to property, environment and sometimes loss of life occurs. Managing the exigencies caused by a failure of a dam requires coordinated efforts of all national and States agencies. The preparation of Emergency Action Plan (EAP) for all DRIP dams is one of the important activities under DRIP. This document defines clear roles for all concern agencies as well as Standard Operating Protocols during various stage of exigencies, as well as contains all technical details about the flood waves moving downstream affecting the downstream habitation.

Samir/jk 

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