Energy from the top of the world – hydroelectric dams in the he Himalaya
Back in the year 1908 the Rajah of the principality of Chamba gave the order to build the first hydro-electric dam in the Himalaya he probably did not know what ball he got rolling, because 105 years later there is some sort of a hydro-electric booom going on in India. And after India gained independence in 1947 it all started as a status symbol for economical development and success as for example in the case of the Bhakra dam that was held by prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1963 as: ” the new temple of resurgent India”( Geographische Rundschau Issue 4/2012 p.28 l.6f. )
However if we look at today the ambitious projects are built for economical reasons rather than idealistic ones and whilst they were conceived to stabilize the water supply for the mainland in the 70s nowadays they are designed to supply the electricity for the census metropolitan areas like Mumbai.
But since there are so many dams planed nobody actually knows what the consequences for the Himalaya as a region are and the construction processes are more ambitious than successful as it turns out so let us take a closer look at those dams.
However if we look at today the ambitious projects are built for economical reasons rather than idealistic ones and whilst they were conceived to stabilize the water supply for the mainland in the 70s nowadays they are designed to supply the electricity for the census metropolitan areas like Mumbai.
But since there are so many dams planed nobody actually knows what the consequences for the Himalaya as a region are and the construction processes are more ambitious than successful as it turns out so let us take a closer look at those dams.
What can you achieve with a hydro-electric dam?
Perhaps that same question has been asked by the person who thought about the Nathpa Jakhri Dam in the Indian province of Himachal Pradesh which is the largest and most powerful hydro-electric dam in India with 6 turbines of 250 megawatts installed capacity each.
But the interesting – or depending on how you look at it the worrying aspect of it – is not its power it is actually the fact that the Nathpa Jakhri is not a conventional hydro electric dam as we know it in terms of the way it works. You see normally a hydro-electric dam is just the concrete dam with built-in turbines pumping the water out immediately after it, which is aimed to minimize the interruption of the river. However with this dam things are a little bit different, because the river that the Nathpa Jakhri dams – as a matter of fact it is called the Sutlej – is actually forged into tunnels which are built in order to achieve the closest to a free fall the designers could create to maximize the power capacity of the power plant. That may sound brilliant to a certain degree because you increase the output and therefore end up with more renewably generated electricity.
Unfortunately there are in fact so huge problems with hydro-electric dams that work this way, some enthusiasts would actually go as far as saying they are not even really renewable sources of energy and if you would define renewable sources of energy as environmental friendly we would maybe need to endorse them. The reason for this being is that dams like the Nathpa Jakhri which forge the water away from the original riverbed into artificial underground tunnels actually endanger both the environment and themselves.
Although the government of the Indian province of Himachal Pradesh set a leading light in being the first government to make it a law that you have to guarantee that a certain amount of water is still flowing through the original river bed, the disappointing reality is that no one really cares about that and so you will be able to spot dozens of dry rivers in the Himalaya. In fact the Sutlej is - due to the Nathpa Jakhri dam – dry on a distance of over 30 kilometers which means that all the animals that used to live in the river are actually cut off from their native habitats. Especially so called migratin fish meaning fish that migrate into different areas in order to get to their spawning ground are affected by those dams because it is now impossible for them to reach these spawning grounds and thus they are forced to leave their natural habitats and go further towards the lowlands into more difficult living conditions.
In addition to that also the gravel and stone that is exhumed while building the underground tunnels and power plants is in most cases just spilled into the dry riverbeds and if at all fixed rather carelessly. Now this combined with the delicate fact that the reservoirs of these dams increase the pressure that lasts on the valleys regularly ends up in an earthquake or rock fall.
Another risk resulting from the carelessly retrieved materials is that if there is actually any water left in the riverbed they often work as dams themselves blocking up the water and thus creating enormous pressure. Now if this artificial effect comes together with the natural effect of melting snow from the mountain peaks the “rubbish-dams” collapse and cause floods in the valleys. Now you might say that this sounds a little made up but quite recently – in a few days ago there was a devastating flood in the North of India – in the Himalaya to be precise and it cost the life of a number of people that is still unknown today. And experts suggest that beneath chopped forests these dams are one of the reasons for this flood.
But the interesting – or depending on how you look at it the worrying aspect of it – is not its power it is actually the fact that the Nathpa Jakhri is not a conventional hydro electric dam as we know it in terms of the way it works. You see normally a hydro-electric dam is just the concrete dam with built-in turbines pumping the water out immediately after it, which is aimed to minimize the interruption of the river. However with this dam things are a little bit different, because the river that the Nathpa Jakhri dams – as a matter of fact it is called the Sutlej – is actually forged into tunnels which are built in order to achieve the closest to a free fall the designers could create to maximize the power capacity of the power plant. That may sound brilliant to a certain degree because you increase the output and therefore end up with more renewably generated electricity.
Unfortunately there are in fact so huge problems with hydro-electric dams that work this way, some enthusiasts would actually go as far as saying they are not even really renewable sources of energy and if you would define renewable sources of energy as environmental friendly we would maybe need to endorse them. The reason for this being is that dams like the Nathpa Jakhri which forge the water away from the original riverbed into artificial underground tunnels actually endanger both the environment and themselves.
Although the government of the Indian province of Himachal Pradesh set a leading light in being the first government to make it a law that you have to guarantee that a certain amount of water is still flowing through the original river bed, the disappointing reality is that no one really cares about that and so you will be able to spot dozens of dry rivers in the Himalaya. In fact the Sutlej is - due to the Nathpa Jakhri dam – dry on a distance of over 30 kilometers which means that all the animals that used to live in the river are actually cut off from their native habitats. Especially so called migratin fish meaning fish that migrate into different areas in order to get to their spawning ground are affected by those dams because it is now impossible for them to reach these spawning grounds and thus they are forced to leave their natural habitats and go further towards the lowlands into more difficult living conditions.
In addition to that also the gravel and stone that is exhumed while building the underground tunnels and power plants is in most cases just spilled into the dry riverbeds and if at all fixed rather carelessly. Now this combined with the delicate fact that the reservoirs of these dams increase the pressure that lasts on the valleys regularly ends up in an earthquake or rock fall.
Another risk resulting from the carelessly retrieved materials is that if there is actually any water left in the riverbed they often work as dams themselves blocking up the water and thus creating enormous pressure. Now if this artificial effect comes together with the natural effect of melting snow from the mountain peaks the “rubbish-dams” collapse and cause floods in the valleys. Now you might say that this sounds a little made up but quite recently – in a few days ago there was a devastating flood in the North of India – in the Himalaya to be precise and it cost the life of a number of people that is still unknown today. And experts suggest that beneath chopped forests these dams are one of the reasons for this flood.
Explosives in the dams – political and social conflicts due to hydroelectricity?
Now obviously India is not the only country wanting to use the Himalaya as a) a source of energy and b) a source of fresh water. In fact the most ambitious country to build dams in the Himalaya is China who want to use the water from Tibet to supply the increasing energy demand of their growing economy on the one hand and on the other need to establish a system that answers the question of how to give 1,1 billion people an access to fresh water.
Actually there are rumors that the Chinese government is planning on a project called the “sky channel” aimed to transport 300 billion cubic meters of Tibetan fresh water to the capitol Beijing. And although the Chinese government still denies that they have anything like the “sky channel” in mind it is in fact more than rumors since the German state Television has actually interviewed a Chinese engineer called Wang Weiluo, who has among others projects participated in the three gorges dam, and he has gone on record saying that:” If you compare the dams, which China is building and planning to build on the Yarlung Tsampo and its tributaries, it springs to one’s mind that these are exactly the locations being necessary for the forging of the water from Tibet to China. The dam Zangmu for instance, which is currently under construction, matches precisely with the planed start for the “Sky channel.”( http://www.daserste.de/information/wissen-kultur/w-wie-wissen/sendung/2012/tibet-104.html)
Now added to this already insolently ambitious project the river Yarlung Tsampo actually goes on to India where it is called the Brahmaputra, meaning that if the “sky channel” would be build and run in India there would be not enough water for a couple of hundred million people. The Indian government has already protested against this project and one can see which political potential and tension lays in those dam projects.
Actually there are rumors that the Chinese government is planning on a project called the “sky channel” aimed to transport 300 billion cubic meters of Tibetan fresh water to the capitol Beijing. And although the Chinese government still denies that they have anything like the “sky channel” in mind it is in fact more than rumors since the German state Television has actually interviewed a Chinese engineer called Wang Weiluo, who has among others projects participated in the three gorges dam, and he has gone on record saying that:” If you compare the dams, which China is building and planning to build on the Yarlung Tsampo and its tributaries, it springs to one’s mind that these are exactly the locations being necessary for the forging of the water from Tibet to China. The dam Zangmu for instance, which is currently under construction, matches precisely with the planed start for the “Sky channel.”( http://www.daserste.de/information/wissen-kultur/w-wie-wissen/sendung/2012/tibet-104.html)
Now added to this already insolently ambitious project the river Yarlung Tsampo actually goes on to India where it is called the Brahmaputra, meaning that if the “sky channel” would be build and run in India there would be not enough water for a couple of hundred million people. The Indian government has already protested against this project and one can see which political potential and tension lays in those dam projects.
Should we go on using hydro-electric dams ?
As a matter of fact hydro-electric dams are the most common renewable source of energy since they are very efficient and easy to build. But there are so many downsides like the destruction of the local ecosystems, the suiting of seismological activity as well as the social and political issues that we have addressed.
They actually cause irreparable damages to the society and the environment and therefore should not be considered as renewable sources of energy because they are hardly renewable since they endanger their own existence as we learn from examples like the three gorges dam that already suffers from flaws being over one meter deep.
We should therefore not imply them into our new energy supply system since they are nothing more than power plants running on fossil fuels: segue solutions that shall help us build up a new system but shall not be implied into that.
Sources:
1. Geographische Rundschau Printed Issue 4/2012:”Himalaya Mensch und Umwelt“ p.26-33
2. http://www.daserste.de/information/wissen-kultur/w-wie-wissen/sendung/2012/tibet-104.html
3. http://www.fr-online.de/panorama/flut-in-indien-heilige-machen-beute,1472782,23513536.html
They actually cause irreparable damages to the society and the environment and therefore should not be considered as renewable sources of energy because they are hardly renewable since they endanger their own existence as we learn from examples like the three gorges dam that already suffers from flaws being over one meter deep.
We should therefore not imply them into our new energy supply system since they are nothing more than power plants running on fossil fuels: segue solutions that shall help us build up a new system but shall not be implied into that.
Sources:
1. Geographische Rundschau Printed Issue 4/2012:”Himalaya Mensch und Umwelt“ p.26-33
2. http://www.daserste.de/information/wissen-kultur/w-wie-wissen/sendung/2012/tibet-104.html
3. http://www.fr-online.de/panorama/flut-in-indien-heilige-machen-beute,1472782,23513536.html