Story

Incomplete Hydroelectric Dams Collect Debris

September 08, 2014 | Pulitzer Center
By
Tom Clement

The partially complete Rangit Stage IV Hydro Electric Project has been collecting debris and trash since the Jal Power Corporation ran out of project funding in the summer of 2013. Image by Tom Clement. India, 2014.

Instead of providing reinforcement for the concrete dam walls, the exposed rebar rusts in the Rangit River. Image by Tom Clement. India, 2014.

The Jal Power Corporation's crane juts out of the Rangit River in West Sikkim. Image by Tom Clement. India, 2014.

The exposed rebar and crane base from the postponed Rangit IV Hydro Electric Project collect logs and trash until project funding is resumed. Image by Tom Clement. India, 2014.

Used concrete bags form a paper machete-like mound next to the abandoned concrete mixing station of the Rangit IV Hydro Electric Project. Image by Tom Clement. India, 2014.

After dam construction stopped in the summer of 2013 monkeys have inhabited the abandoned concrete mixing station. Image by Tom Clement. India, 2014.

Men guard the entrance to the incomplete tunnel system of the Rangit IV Hydro Electric Project filled with industrial drilling equipment that Jal Power Corporation left behind. Image by Tom Clement. India, 2014.

Sitting water collects from the dripping ceiling of the Rangit IV Hydro Electric Project approach tunnel. Image by Tom Clement. India, 2014.

The Teesta VI Hydro Electric Project sits incomplete outside Singtam, Sikkim, after project funding dried up due to dam developer Lanco's other failed investments. Image by Tom Clement. India, 2014.

Electrical wires power the unused crane and illuminate the incomplete Teesta VI dam at night. Image by Tom Clement. India, 2014.

A decomposing safety sign at the Teesta VI dam site posted by dam developer Lanco reads, "If only I had understood the importance of safety before the occurrence of a bad accident." Image by Tom Clement. India, 2014.

Dam equipment left behind by dam developer Lanco lies rusting at the Teesta VI dam site. Image by Tom Clement. India, 2014.

A tunnel guard talks on the phone while leaning against the rusted gates at the Teesta VI dam site. After denying my request to enter the tunnel, the guard added in Hindi, "My boss has been watching you from across the river." Image by Tom Clement. India, 2014.

India’s growing demand for electricity and the push for privatization are having unintended consequences in India’s northern state of Sikkim.

Sikkim’s rushing Himalayan Rivers are making hydroelectricity for India and providing a much needed revenue source for the Sikkim government. The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC Limited), India’s hydropower utility company, completed and commissioned Sikkim’s first hydropower project in 2000, the 60MWt Rangit Hydroelectric Power Project Stage III. But since then most contracts have been awarded to private corporations.

The NHPC projected itself as an organization that would bring much money and many jobs to Sikkim. But as NHPC projects unfolded, the perception changed, “It was only a few favored people who’d get jobs. And the land rate [for dam land acquisitions] we felt was appropriate was actually not given,” said Tseten Lepcha, working president of the NGO, The Affected Citizens of Teesta.

Due to the NHPC’s bad reputation and frugality, as well as the increased authority the Sikkim government could exert over private corporations, the Sikkim leadership favored private developers. Recently retired NHPC employees formed brand new corporations to quickly propose dam projects outlined by Sikkim Prime Minister Pawan Chamling’s hydroelectric initiative. A total of 19 hydroelectric dam contracts were awarded to mostly private dam developers between 2005-2008. Just two contracts were awarded to the NHPC. Most of these 19 projects have not begun construction.

Responding to residents’ concerns about the adverse side effects of dam construction, private corporations promised, “They’d do everything contrary to what the NHPC had done,” explains Tseten Lepcha. However, construction on two hydroelectric dams has yet to be completed.

The 500MWt Teesta VI Hydro Power Project in Singtam, Sikkim, has been sitting unfinished and collecting debris in the Teesta River for over a year after private developer Lanco Infratech Limited’s funding collapsed. The same story happened in West Sikkim after the revenue stream was depleted for Jal Power Corporation’s 120MWt Rangit IV Hydro Power Project in the summer of 2013.

Guards protect the entrances of the incomplete tunnels to prevent the entrance of vagrants while equipment and construction cranes rot at the dam sites.