To prevent Kedarnath like disasters, Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati today stressed the need for proper maintenance of old dams, saying emphasis must be laid on engineers' satisfaction rather than "political satisfaction" when it comes to safety of major reservoirs.
Ruing that existing dams were not operating at their optimal efficiency, she also asked state governments to identify those dams which need rehabilitation and take appropriate actions to ensure their safety.
"The Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) is a very serious project and under this project, we have to make sure the safety and security of the existing dams. We have to make sure that before going for new constructions for water management in future, all the states should come together and embark on a journey to ensure the sustainability of the dams," she said.
"While ensuring and monitoring the safety and security of the dams, everyone has to emphasize on engineers' satisfaction rather than political satisfaction," Bharati said addressing a workshop on 'Lessons learnt from the ongoing DRIP' organised by Water Resources Ministry.
The one-day workshop was attended by representatives from states, where guidelines for preparation of emergency action plans for dams were released.
Bharati asked all the state governments to identify the dams which were in need of rehabilitation and take appropriate actions to ensure their safety.
"We are not harnessing these resources fully and even our existing dams are not operating at their optimal efficiency," she said while referring to the abundance of water resources in India.
She said due to the faulty engineering of Mahatma Gandhi Sarovar in Kedarnath taken up during its modification, the natural outlet for the water was compromised and when the cloudburst took place, the overflow of water led to the disaster.
Referring to the suggestion given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharati also advocated the need to explore tourism potential of the existing dams and exploit the same.
DRIP was started in 2012 with an aim to improve the safety and performance of existing dams and strengthen the states' participation and cooperation with Central Water Commission (CWC).
"We made big dams. However, it is very sad to say that we are not able to utilise these dams 100 per cent. We are not able to repair the damages caused to these dams over the years and, as a result, despite having so much water stored in the dams, we are not able to utilise it," she said.
