Mountains of Concrete - International Rivers

IntroductionThe Himalayas are the highest and among the most spectacularly beautiful mountains in the world. In the absenceof a geographically precise definition, the Himalayas may be taken to mean the mountain ranges that separatethe Indian sub-continent from the Tibetan Plateau. By extension, it is also the name of the massive mountain systemwhich includes the Karakoram, the Hindu Kush, and a host of minor ranges extending from the Pamir Knot. 1The Himalayas consist of several parallel ranges runningwest to east, from the Indus River Valley to the BrahmaputraRiver Valley; they form an arc 2,400 kilometres long, whichvaries in width from 400 km in the western Kashmir-Xinjiang region to 150 km in the eastern Tibet-ArunachalPradesh region. 2 The Himalayas stretch across six countries:Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, China and Afghanistan.The Himalayas are undoubtedly a world heritage. All14 of the highest peaks in the world, called the “eightthousanders”(peaks with heights greater than 8,000 metres)are in the Himalayas. While UNESCO has declared theSagarmatha National Park near Mt. Everest in Nepal as aWorld Heritage Site, 3 there are hundreds of such undeclaredlocations of equal magnificence and significance in theHimalayas.The name itself literally means “the abode of snow,”and the Himalayan region is sometimes called the “ThirdPole,” as it has the most highly glaciated areas in the worldoutside of the two Polar regions. It has huge stocks of waterin the form of snow and ice, with a total area of 35,110km 2 of glacier and ice cover, and a total ice reserve of 3,735km 3 . 4 Hundreds of small and large rivers originate and runthrough the Himalayan region. It is the source of some ofthe largest rivers in Asia – the Indus, Ganga, Brahmaputra,and Irrawaddy – the basins of which are home to millionsof people. Glacial and snow melt is an important source ofthe flows of these rivers. 5The rivers that originate in the Himalayas providesustenance, livelihoods and prosperity to millions of peopleliving in a vast area that stretches from the Indus Basin plainsof Pakistan in the west to Bangladesh in the east. With theirhigh slopes and huge quantities of fast-moving waters, theHimalayan rivers have always been looked upon as havinglarge potential to generate hydroelectric power. Some ofthe earliest and largest hydropower stations in the countriesof the Indian subcontinent have been built on Himalayanrivers; for example, the Bhakra Nangal project in India andthe Tarbela project in Pakistan.Recent years have seen a renewed push for buildingdams in the Himalayas. Massive plans are underway inPakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan 6 to build several hundreddams in the region, with over 150,000 Megawatts (MW) ofadditional capacity proposed in the next 20 years in the fourThe Seti River near the planned West Seti Dam site in Nepal, 2007.The 750 MW West Seti project is set to begin construction even asthe affected people are strongly opposing it. Photo: Yuki Tanabecountries. If all the planned capacity expansion materialises,the Himalayan region could possibly have the highestconcentration of dams in the world.This dam building activity will fundamentally transformthe landscape, ecology and economy of the region and willhave far-reaching impacts all the way down to the riverdeltas. Submergence of lands, homes, fields and forests ona large scale will displace hundreds of thousands of people.Damming and diversion of rivers will severely disrupt thedownstream flows, impacting agriculture and fisheries andthreatening livelihoods of entire populations. Degradationof the natural surroundings and a massive influx of migrantworkers will have grave implications for the culture andidentity of local people, who are often distinct ethnic groupssmall in numbers. As the entire region is seismically active,Mountains of Concrete: Dam Building in the Himalayas | 3