(Feature Image: A worn out portion of Singur dam embankment. Source)
This annual overview presents top ten reports highlighting the dam safety issues in India. Worryingly, the central govt in Oct. 2025 itself has revealed that safety audit of about 5000 large dams is pending. Before this, the NHRC in Feb. 2025 sought a report on safety of the dams across the country. The plea rightly demanded a transparent, accountable and participatory dam safety mechanism to prevent disasters. Indeed, the aging infrastructure, inadequate maintenance, slow progress of rehabilitation and fast changing climate are among the key issues putting our dams under threats.
Amid this, the safety issues of the Singur and Srisailam dams in Telangana remained unresolved despite official inspections and efforts round the year. Additionally, there are many more dams facing structural issues since long. During monsoon, the BBMB has been questioned for unaccountable dam operation aggravating floods in Punjab state. In Uttarakhand, research has found that the Joshimath landslide is still active and can impact the under construction Tapovan Vishnugad hydro project. Another study has warned about increasing failure of newly built dams in developing countries.
1 Safety Assessment of 5000 Indian dams pending In Oct. 29, 2025 meeting in Pune, Secretary of Union Ministry of Jal Shakti said that safety assessment of about 5000 large dams, out of total around 6000 in India is pending as per the following PIB press release. He went on to urge acceleration of dam safety assessments across the country. This is a worrying situation, coming straight from the secretary of the concerned Union Ministry. It again underlines the sorry situation regarding dam safety in India.
It is not clear what does the report of the safety assessment of the 1000 dams already completed say. The available information about dam safety situation in case of some of the largest dams shows that these reports may also need urgent action plan. In fact, we urgently need audit of our dam safety institutional architecture to see how adequate are these institutions and their work on dam safety issues in India. We urgently need independent expertise both inside these institutions and all their regulatory bodies, we also need legal stipulations to make all information related to dam safety completely transparent and institutionalization of accountability in structural and operational safety of dams.
Are dams in India Truly Safe? The fundamental issue lies at the intersection of aging infrastructure, inadequate maintenance, political inertia and growing climatic stress. Many dam manuals haven’t been updated for over 20 years.
The question is not whether a dam can withstand an extreme event. The question is how many simultaneous extreme events we are ready to handle. Will we risk releasing water early if downstream farmers protest? And will we risk delaying water release if urban areas flood? In India, risk balancing is more electoral than hydrological. If you speak to senior hydrologists privately, they admit that while India hasn’t had a major dam disaster in recent history, it is not because we are fully prepared. It is because of sheer luck and fragmented rainfall patterns. A synchronized failure of multiple dams in a river basin could trigger unprecedented devastation.
Is age catching up with India’s dams? Today, India faces the challenge of large parts of its hydrological infrastructure ageing en masse. According to the National Register of Large (Specified) Dams, some 1,065 dams were 50-100 years old and 224 were more than a century old in 2023. Many major dams of the post-1950 period are now in the last stages of their originally intended lifespan.
2 StudyComprehensive dam catchment attributes for dam safety studies in India ABSTRACT: The Indian subcontinent has around 5715 dams across different rivers. This study develops a dataset of catchment attributes for 5715 dams over the Indian subcontinent using observed, reanalysis, and remote sensing data. The dam dataset consists of six major attributes, including topography, climate, geology and groundwater, soil, LULC, and human-induced activities. Using the 30-m SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) data, the paper delineated the watershed for each dam using the automatic outlet relocation algorithm and estimated various topographic attributes for each catchment. It developed geological, soil, and LULC attributes for each dam catchment, considering existing global and regional datasets. The paper also included human-induced activities datasets for each dam catchment, which can be useful in studying the impact of human activities on dam safety and water resources. Overall, the dataset can be used to conduct various scientific studies, dam safety analyses, and impact studies on Indian dams.
3 Study Newly built dams in low-income countries failing increasingly A study published in Nature Water (https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-025-00402-1) estimated that 23 large ‘dam failures’ could occur worldwide by 2035. With 4.4 per cent of large dams facing a failure probability above 1/10,000, prioritizing investment in dam safety was never more important, the research highlighted. The researchers observed a strong infant mortality (higher probability of failure during the first years of operation), which remains especially important for the development of new embankment dams, while recent concrete dams have become more resilient. In contrast, hazard signals related to ageing remain less apparent.
Decades-old dams would be prevalent in future failure statistics—especially embankment dams of height between 15 and 70 m built in the second half of the last century, the study found. The study uncovered a trend of increased failure rates of newly constructed dams in low-income regions, which coincides with areas where substantial hydropower potential remains untapped. “This is especially intensified in monsoon-dominated climates, whereas the pattern of construction and failures is more homogeneous across other major climatic regions,” it noted.
4 Uttarakhand Landslide a threat to Tapovan Vishnugad HEP? A paper in scientific journal co-authored by Internationally renowned landslide expert Dave Petley (published on June 16 2025 at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2025.108201) warns that the Joshimath landslide is moving and can threaten the under construction Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project in Chamoli district in Uttarkhand. The paper says: “The 2023 rapid deformation at Joshimath was preceded by slow movement years ahead. Deforestation in the Joshimath region might have intensified the slope instability. Additional landslide zones were detected in Hailang, Kalpeshwar with similar pattern. Slow-moving landslides have high potential to cause often underestimated damages.”
This raises many questions, not only about the justification of moving ahead with the project, but also about the project appraisal, including the geological appraisal by the Geological Society of India. More worryingly, there is no confidence inspiring process in place to understand this reality and take necessary steps.
5 NHRC Report on dam safety from Centre sought In Feb. 2025, the NHRC sought an Action taken Report from the Union Ministry of Water Resources on the issue of safety of dams across India including Hirakud, Hadgad, and several other dams in Odisha. Acting on a petition filed by human rights lawyer Radhakanta Tripathy, the NHRC directed the ministry to examine the issue & submit the report expeditiously in 15 days treating the matter as urgent.
The petitioner sought for a transparent, accountable and participatory dam safety mechanism in India to prevent disasters. As per Section 31 of the Dam Safety Act 2021, every owner of a specified dam has been mandated to undertake annually, through their dam safety unit, a pre-monsoon and post- monsoon inspection in respect of each specified dam and to forward the inspection report to the concerned SDSO.
NHRC notice to DMs over dam safety In first week of Jan. 2025, the National Human Rights Commission directed the District Magistrates (DMs) of Keonjhar and Sambalpur to take immediate steps to ensure the safety of people living near the Hadagarh and Hirakud dams. It has asked the authorities to take appropriate action within eight weeks.
The notice highlighted that embankment of Hadagarh dam on Salandi river was constructed to protect the local population from rising river waters, but the dam has weakened over time, requiring urgent repairs and restoration. Petition also raised concerns over the safety of the Hirakud dam, alleging that it too is in dire need of repairs, restoration, and sediment recovery.
Petition claimed that dam safety audits are not being conducted properly in a timely manner. Despite the existence of the Dam Safety Act 2021 and the NDSA, many dams across India are operating without adequate safety measures, which puts people’s lives at risk.
6 Singur Dam Risk of collapse As per Aug. 2025 report, the Singur dam may collapse “anytime” with a very real and serious threats of its embankments getting breached, resulting in huge loss of life, a state dam safety review panel (DSRP) report on the conditions at the M. Baga Reddy Singur Project has warned. It said urgent repairs are necessary. The Singur dam, designed to hold 29.91 tmc ft of water, and located upstream of Manjira reservoir, supplies around 6.96 tmc ft to Hyderabad. The breach would also have severely adverse impacts on the downstream Manjira Dam.
An inspection by members of the specially constituted DSRP in June 2025 found, among other serious issues, that the entire earthen bund had developed several vertical cracks which must be repaired immediately. One of the reasons for the current state of the dam, the DSRP indicated, was the excessive storage of water at the dam beyond its rated capacity in 2017 to provide water supply to the Mission Bhagiratha scheme. The report said “due to excessive storage, major areas like upstream revetment could not be repaired and maintained to the original designed slopes… If the disturbed upstream revetment is not rehabilitated urgently, a breach in the earthen embankment may happen anytime.”
In Aug. 2025, the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) also warned of serious structural damage to Singur Dam, ordering urgent repairs and reduced storage to 20 TMC. Officials cautioned that a breach could flood downstream areas, urging residents and farmers along the Manjeera River to stay alert. The breach could also damage the Nizam Sagar and Manjeera dams and other check dams downstream. In the wake of the DSRP warning, the Irrigation Department decided to restrict the storage in the reservoir to 20 TMCft against its full storage capacity of 29.91 TMCft.
In response to recommendations from the NDSA, the irrigation department in Oct. 2025 decided to keep the dam empty to facilitate urgent repair work. Following an NDSA alert, water storage in the dam was reduced to 16 TMCft, despite the project receiving a record 220 TMCft of water during this year’s rainy season.
The department officials on Nov. 11 2025, concluded: “if repairs are not taken up immediately, a risk of breach exists, leading to catastrophic downstream flooding (impacting Manjeera barrage, Nizamsagar dam, and several check dams).” Warning of an “imminent breach risk,” the department called on the government to instruct the HMWS&SB to find alternative drinking water supplies to Hyderabad instead of from Singur till the repairs are completed.
Officials did not commence depletion of water at the Singur dam from Dec. 1 as scheduled, to take up repairs. The decision to deplete the dam appears to have collided with the inevitable realisation that without the project drinking water supply will be affected for several months, if not a year or two. The 7-member technical committee that met on Dec 3, 2025 saw divergent points of view with the irrigation department making it clear that it could not compromise on the dam’s safety and would need full depletion of the reservoir, while water board and MB officials maintained that without Singur water, they would not be able to supply drinking water.
7 Srisailam Dam safety in slumber The Srisailam, dam one of the biggest dams of India, is facing a serious dam safety issue since over a decade, and yet, strangely, there is no resolution of this in sight. All attempts seem to downplay the issue and hide the reports & reality from public domain. It is well known that the damage to the stilling basin and plunge pool area, part of the Dam project and located just downstream of the main wall is serious and some of the cracks from the downstream are going towards the main dam. Even the NDSA visited the dam a year back, but no action plan is in sight.
This reminds us of the Supreme Court of India’s characterization of attitude of the Union Govt agencies including the Central Water Commission (CWC) on dam safety (though in the context of another dam) as slumber. That slumber is also evident with respect to the way some of the major dam crisis in recent years including Kaleshwaram (delay in finalizing NDSA report), Polavaram (Dam suffered serious damages in 2019-2020, but no dam safety report as yet), Hirakud Dam (Dam needs higher spillway capacity but no movement to achieve that) and Teesta 3 dam collapse (NDSA report not in public domain).
Alarming situation says Telangana State Committee on Dam Safety (SCDS) chairman and Engineer-in-Chief (General) N. Anil Kumar in Feb. 2025 through a letter urged NDSA to depute an expert team to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the plunge pool damage and review the structural integrity of the dam. He also called for a coordinated action plan to initiate both immediate temporary measures and long-term rehabilitation strategies to safeguard the dam.
Recent inspections and media reports revealed that the unprecedented discharge during the 2009 floods – approximately 25 lakh cusecs against the dam’s designed capacity of 14 lakh cusecs, caused substantial scouring and created a large void in the plunge pool area downstream of the spillway. Studies conducted by the National Institute of Oceanography, commissioned by the Andhra Pradesh Govt, indicate severe erosion. If left unaddressed, this could compromise the overall stability of the dam, which stands at a maximum height of 143.26 metres from its deepest foundation level.
The void growing in size each flood season is estimated to be around 400 metres wide and its edge is barely 100 metres away from the lip of the dam’s spillway. According to an answer provided in the Rajya Sabha by the central government on this issue in 2012, its depth was, at that time, reported to be 46.65 metres.
The NDSA too, after a 2024 Feb inspection had found that drainage holes in the foundation gallery of the dam were not functioning due to choking, and this could consequently add to the stability at the dam.
Following the letter, the NDSA chairman Atul Jain on March 06, 2025 convened a video conference with officials from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and directed AP to take up repair and fixed timelines for the same. It also pulled up AP officials for not implementing the recommendations of the NDSA for one year.
Agreeing to Telangana’s suggestion the NDSA declared that those who were currently operating the project should be treated as the owner. Accordingly, Telangana will be the owner of NSP while AP will be the owner of Srisailam.
The NDSA authorities said if the plunge pool is not repaired now, it may pose a danger in future, especially in the monsoon season. Chief engineers of the dams are responsible for any repairs and they will be held responsible for any lapse, the NDSA warned. Anil Kumar also said ever since the 2009 heavy floods, the Srisailam dam’s pressure releasing cells have stopped working, and that the drainage channels in the dam’s gallery have been blocked. He informed the NDSA that the equipment to monitor seismicity at the dam, and any tremors has not been functioning and that AP appeared to be not bothered about these aspects.
After NDSA visit to the dam on April 29, 2025, Andhra Pradesh WRD special chief secretary G Sai Prasad explained that they have submitted a proposal to the Centre for grant of Rs 284 crore under the ‘Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project’ (Drip) scheme for taking up repairs at the Srisailam project.
He said that the proposal was cleared by the Jal Shakti ministry and pending for final clearance from the Union finance ministry. However, NDSA chief Jain asked the state govt to start the work without waiting for the fund release from the Drip scheme. He said that there should be certain improvements in the condition before the monsoon.
The NDSA also identified that immediate safety measures should be taken at 6 projects. Jain directed the officials to take up an assessment of the projects which were considered weak and submit a report to the Centre. The state govt directed the officials to ready the proposals to invite tenders to take up some works immediately.
Regarding delay in fund from Centre, the NDSA and Telangana officials urged Andhra to use state resources for repairs and seek reimbursement later. In light of recent structural failures at the Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla barrages under the Kaleshwaram project, officials want to avoid a similar incident at Srisailam. The NDSA was also learnt to have told the Telangana irrigation officials to prepare emergency action plans and dam break analysis for all dams in the state, and the officials assured the NDSA that this will be done.
Later in the month, in a letter to the AP government, NDSA chairman Anil Jain pointed out the apparent lackadaisical approach to the dam’s safety and said: “Its regular monitoring was in the recommendations of all expert groups formed for the safety of Srisailam dam. However, the same has not been complied with and as on date no one is aware about the conditions of the measures taken earlier to protect the rock face against the scouring.”
The NDSA asked the AP government to “minimize” the operations of Gates 5 and 6 (in the middle of the dam which has 12 gates. Typically, when dam gates are opened, this process starts from the middle and extends to the sides) “in view of the severe damaged condition of the cylinders and possible scour of the old cofferdam.”
A Central Design Organization (CDO) team, led by Chief Engineer Vijayabhaskar, conducted an inspection to assess the structural integrity of the dam and monitor progress on critical repair works on May 12, 2025. Key areas reviewed included eroded hilly zones, the approach road, gate operations, and water retention systems. Officials provided updates on ongoing and pending safety measures, as the NDSA has set a deadline of May 31, 2025, for plunge pool repairs before the monsoon season.
The CDO team confirmed that there is no immediate threat to the dam’s safety, though concerns persist regarding the plunge pool, a pit formed by erosion below the spillway apron. Additionally, the surrounding hillsides are showing signs of slope failure, requiring stabilization through grouting and the construction of a road to the apron area.
Notably, way back in 2022, works costing Rs 900 crore were proposed for dam development. They included Rs 780 crore for plunge pool restoration. In 2021, a requirement of Rs 1,000 crore was cited to take up repairs on the dam and its plunge pool. While several funding proposals have been made over the years, actual disbursement has been limited. The World Bank approved Rs 103 crore in 2024 for dam repairs, including Rs 10 crore specifically for plunge pool restoration. Additionally, the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS) was allocated Rs 14.70 crore for a comprehensive safety study, with Rs 3 crore released for preliminary assessments. An allocation of Rs 108 crore was indicated under the DRIP this year. Despite these allocations, bureaucratic delays and insufficient annual maintenance budgets have hindered progress.
On May 17, 2025, a research team from the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing (IIITDM), Kurnool, deployed an underwater drone to assess the condition of the plunge pool, capturing high-resolution video footage from deep underwater.
Three of the 12 gates of the Srisailam dam had leaks, with the worst leakage occurring from Gate No. 10 on July 5, 2025. Each of the dam gates stands 55 feet in height and has a width of 60 feet which means in terms of height, 47 feet of the dam’s gates are already under the water line. It was not just the Gate 10 from where water was leaking, but also from Gates 5 and 6, though not with the same force.
Though the leak from Gate 10, was described as ‘substantial’ by an official who evaluated the images of the leak, Srisailam dam superintending engineer P. Sreeramachandra Murthy was firm in saying there were absolutely no leaks from the gates. The NDSA called on the dam authorities to “minimize operation of gates 5 and 6” to prevent further damage to temporary protection structures in the form of huge steel cylinders erected just after the spillway.
8 BBMB’s poor track record on Operational Dam Safety One aspect that stands out not so obvious in the ongoing water dispute between Punjab and Haryana is the poor track record of BBMB in achieving operational safety of BBMB projects during floods, particularly in recent years, but also starting from way back in 1970s. That is why it sounds strange when in early May, BBMB is talking about need for water releases to safeguard the Bhakra dam’s structural integrity, when the dam is at its lowest level in the season. We see no such urgency or public statements by BBMB during the monsoons last few years when not only IMD had forecast heavy rainfall in the catchment, but also there was no action by BBMB even when catchments had already received heavy rainfall.
The BBMB also publicly cited the need to follow the technical requirements based on rule curve while advocating water release for Haryana. This is also strange in early May when dam is at the lowest level as BBMB showed no such concern of following the rule curve or making public statements about need to follow rule curve several times during monsoon in last few years, leading to avoidable flood disaster in Punjab more than once. In fact, as we and others advocated, this should have led to independent inquiry and holding the responsible BBMB officials accountable. Nothing like that happened. In fact, the rule curves of the Bhakra dams are not even in public domain, which must be.
It is high time that BBMB show the urgency in safe operation of the Bhakra dams all throughout the year, take necessary steps, institute independent inquiry and make the responsible persons accountable. That alone will bring better credibility to BBMB’s public statements in this regard.
9 Karnataka: KRS Dam Technical issue causes uncontrolled release More than 1,000 cusecs of Cauvery water wastefully flowed into the river for more than a day after a sluice gate suddenly opened at the Krishnaraja Sagar Reservoir (KRS) on March 24, 2025 night. Farmers alleged that officials failed to attend to the crisis immediately and did not close the gate to save precious water. Many wanted to know whether the fifth crest gate opened on its own due to a technical fault or because of the callousness of employees assigned to monitor the gauge and operations of sluice gates. They asked as to why the officials did not act in time to control the damage.
A few officers suspect that the gate might have opened because of the motor switch reversing or the irrigation department staff pressing the gate switch. Sources said officials struggled for hours to close the crest gate as the reservoir level is around 106 ft as against the maximum of 124.8 ft. Superintendent Engineer Raghuram said the gate opened because of a technical snag, and a report has been sought to know how and who opened the gate. He said that around 750-1,000 cusecs of water flowed into the river.
10 Telangana Safety ‘dam’ned in irrigation projects The Mallannasagar reservoir, built as part of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), and flagged for its location over a geological fault, does not have any equipment to monitor seismicity. And neither do the Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla barrages. And where the equipment does exist, it does not work as in the case of Nagarjunasagar, Sriram Sagar, Sripada Yellampalli projects, to name a few.
Many of these dams also do not have operation and maintenance manuals, the list of which includes the likes of Nagarjunasagar, SRSP, Singur, Jurala, Lower and Upper Manair dams, Kaddem, Osmansagar and Himayatsagar reservoirs. With respect to instrumentation, many of the 174 dams do not have instruments to measure even water levels, seepages or leakages, or uplift and pore pressure measuring devices, which are among the instruments that the State Dam Safety Organization (SDSO) lists in its report in the section ‘Status of Instrumentation of Dam’. These include the tourism popular dams like Pakhal, Laknavaram, Ramappa lakes, Osmansagar and Himayatsagar reservoirs. Incidentally, many of the reservoirs formed by these dams are being sought to be developed as tourist destinations by the government.
According to the SDSO report, these three Kalleshwarm Project barrages also do not have instrumentation to measure seepage and leakages, two problems that were repeatedly witnessed at these barrages ever since they were inaugurated in June 2019. A 94-page ‘2023-24 annual report’, prepared by the SDSO of the irrigation department, and submitted to the special chief secretary, revenue (disaster management) on Jan 18 2025, reads like a list of small and big disasters that could be waiting to strike the 174 specified dams – small, medium, and major – as required to be listed under the provisions of the Dam Safety Act of 2021.
Among the other issues mentioned in the report is that Nagarjunasagar dam has instrumentation to measure uplift and pore pressure monitoring but this equipment is not active. Same is the case with equipment related to crack and joint movement, and stress and strain measuring of the structure.
Finding place in the report is a long list of dams that have no instrumentation of any kind – at least from the ones evaluated by the SDSO for the 174 dams are three drinking water sources for Hyderabad city – Manjira, Osmansagar, and Himayatsagar.
Relevant Reports
Dam Safety concerns at Srisailam and Nagarjunsagar Dams The visit of chairman of NDSA to Srisailam and Nagarjunsagar dams on Krishna River of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana has brought out very worrying reports. These are two of the largest dams in India. This is symptomatic of the situation of dam safety across the country. This situation in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the states that have also seen several major dam mishaps in recent years including Polavaram (AP) and Kaleshwaram (Telangana) among others, is very worrying and the approach from the NDSA chairman is also hardly confidence inspiring. We hope the situation improves soon before we face any major dam disaster in the coming monsoon.
Priyadarshini Jurala Dam NDSA Warnings One of the most critical concerns flagged by the NDSA is the continued use of the dam structure as a roadway. Despite warnings that heavy vehicular movement could undermine the dam’s integrity, traffic, including sand tippers, lorries, and RTC buses, continues to ply across it.
12 gates leak: Officials say all well Leakages were noticed at 12 (of total 62) gates of the Jurala project during the flood season. However, officials described the issue as “minor” and stressed that there was no threat to the structure. Allegations have surfaced that although a repair agency (Budget 11 Cr) was engaged three years ago by the authorities, it carried out work on only four of the gates. Sources said that the ropeway mechanism and rubber components of the gates were not functioning properly.
Komaram Bheem Dam Concerns about safety The Residents living downstream of the Komaram Bheem irrigation project in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district, Telangana, have raised serious concerns about the poor safety measures around the reservoir. Cracks have reportedly developed on a portion of the bund, but no major repair work has been undertaken so far. About a month and a half ago, officials from the CWC and the Dam Safety Authority conducted a safety inspection. They recommended restricting the reservoir’s water storage to 6 TMC ft, significantly below its full capacity of 10.6 TMC ft, to prevent undue pressure on the bund and avoid potential disasters during heavy rains.
Despite cracks developing on the spillway’s right side during the 2022 monsoon rains, officials have only covered these areas with tarpaulin sheets instead of conducting proper repairs. A detailed safety report from the inspection teams is expected next month, which may include additional remedial measures to enhance the project’s safety and operational capacity.
Manjeera Dam Needs urgent repair The Manjira dam, one of Hyderabad’s drinking water supply lifelines, supplying up to 100 MGD water, needs urgent repairs, and its long-term safety may be compromised if the dam does not receive immediate attention, an internal report of the Telangana irrigation department has said. The March 22 report by SDSO described some of the maintenance aspects of the dam as ‘alarming’ with its earthen bund getting weakened by unchecked growth of acacia trees, its gates in a state of serious disrepair, & even portions of its spillway seriously damaged due to neglect of maintenance over the years.
The Manjira dam has suffered downstream spillway damages on account of shooting flows that have not only resulted in damages to the apron, but also uprooted portions of it. In the report submitted to the irrigation department in March 2025, a panel of experts and SDSO officials, after a detailed inspection of the dam, also found that shear cracks were discovered in the dam’s piers. These, the report said, indicated yielding of the piers to “distress that has occurred beyond their bearable limit.”
The experts attributed this to the pressure on the dam to store water round the year to supply drinking water to Hyderabad. About the unchecked growth of acacia trees on the earthen bund the report said: “The dam is in a seriously ruined condition”, calling the tree growth a “scrub and heavy jungle,” and the conditions were such that 1.5 km of the dam’s bund could not be inspected as a result. “Why cannot the NDSA, which rushed to check on Medigadda after two piers developed cracks, act on these (Manjira & Jurala) disasters,” BRS’s T Harish Rao asked.
On June 28, 2025, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) earmarked ₹3.52 crore for urgent repair works on Manjeera barrage, including replacement of gates, ropes and components. HMWSSB MD K Ashok Reddy said that the SDSA submitted its assessment on June 28, and no structural threat to Manjeera barrage was found. HMWSSB also announced plans to modernize the Manjeera drinking water infrastructure with a substantial investment of Rs 600 crore.
The dam inspected by the SDSO on March 22. The team submitted a detailed report to the Irrigation Department, flagging multiple safety issues. The Manjeera barrage gates undergo annual maintenance. However, recent observations suggest that the gates, ropes and bearings need replacement. A budget of Rs 3.52 had been finalised in May 2024, along with the completion of the tender process and appointment of an agency. Currently, the gate-tightening works have been completed, while other repair activities are still in progress.
In Aug. 2025, the HMWSSB General Manager (Engineering) A. Ramakrishna refuted reports regarding the malfunctioning of crest gates at the Manjeera dam.
Karnataka: Kabini Dam Minor cracks The Kabini reservoir developed minor cracks & cavities in the stone structure, pressing the need to protect the 50-year-old dam as per Jun 2025 report. Though experts ruled out an immediate threat to the structure, they said any neglect or delay in filling up the cavities and cracks would weaken the structure. There has been a minor crack in the dam for the last 12 years and it had not been given priority like the KRS dam.
The crack and cavities are 40 to 50 cms long and will increase if not filled, the experts said. Based on the findings and a report from the authorities of Cauvery Niravari Nigam Ltd (CNNL), the state cabinet at its special meeting on April 24 approved Rs 32.35 crore for the dam repair. Despite the technical approval, officials could not take up the project because of increased inflows into the reservoir this monsoon & high turbidity in the water that has reduced visibility.
Irrigation Department Superintendent Engineer Mahesh said turbidity in water should reduce for professional divers to go into the water and fill up cracks. “We are preparing a project report of Rs 85 crore and presenting it to the Union government to take up the dam strengthening work. We are confident that the Centre will approve it as the Kabini reservoir is placed under Category 2, which needs immediate attention,” he said. There is, however, no immediate threat to the dam’s safety, he added.
CNNL on June 22, 2025 discarded news about water leakage from Kabini Reservoir, saying the leak is minor and the issue has been addressed.
Heeranjalu Dam Farmers protest failure In first week of Feb. 2025, farmers highlighted several issues, including the unscientific construction of the dam and jackwell, lack of proper information provided to farmers, and the absence of a notice board about the project. They also pointed out that water from the dam has already seeped into low-lying areas, damaging crops. Despite this, no compensation has been provided to affected farmers. Additionally, incorrect information has been circulated, such as claims that 1,000 acres of land are used for paddy cultivation in the area. Farmers also criticized the lack of proper land acquisition, survey, and water management committee formation. They alleged that officials are carrying out the work unscientifically, leading to waterlogging in low-lying fields.
-S Prakashchandra Shetty strongly criticized the officials, demanding that no harm should come to farmers in the project area. He insisted that measures be taken to prevent water from seeping into paddy fields, compensation be provided for crop losses, and a written assurance be given that no cess will be imposed on paddy farmers in the command area. He also called for the jackwell to be relocated to a lower level and urged that work be halted until senior officials provide accurate information.
Chhattisgarh Dams need repair The Sept. 2025 Luti dam collapse incident has raised concerns over safety of other dams in the state where 28 dams are over 50 years old, while 7 are over 100 years old. Recently, the Dam Safety Committee identified 5 dams in the state as dilapidated, emphasizing their monitoring and maintenance. These include Dudhawa, Murumsilli, Ravishankar Sagar Gangrel Dam, Sondur, and Rudri Barrage.
The state govt has allocated funds in the budget for the repair of dams over 50 years old. Former Water Resources Minister Kedar Kashyap had also instructed officials in a departmental review meeting to repair old dams before the monsoons to prevent any untoward incident. However, due to the negligence of department officials and engineers, the dams have not even been repaired.
Report How climate crisis is tripping power sector “The rule curves and standard operating procedures of all big dams need to respond to new realities brought in by the climate crisis. These documents need to be in the public domain for monitoring,” Himanshu Thakkar of SANDRP said. “Before any hydroelectricity project is set up, its disaster potential assessment should be done which should include the vulnerabilities it would add to the area,” Thakkar said. “A cumulative river basin assessment is required because damage to any such project would have a cascading effect.”
Recently, the Supreme Court expressed shock that a national committee for dam safety was yet to be formed despite the enactment of the Dam Safety Act in 2021. “We don’t know which projects, if any, have early warning systems for floods because as the court rightly said, the government agencies dealing with these issues are in slumber,” Thakkar said. “The insurance companies extending coverage to the hydro projects should flag these issues and ensure compliance besides making the details public.”
SANDRP
SANDRP 