iPresas develops a guideline for dam risk analysis and management in India

  • These guidelines will become a reference to establish the best safety standards and risk reduction.
  • India is the third country in the world with the largest number of dams, after USA and China.

iPresas, in collaboration with the Consultancy EGIS EAU (France), is working on the development of a dam risk analysis and management guideline, which will help to boost risk-informed dam safety management in India.

This work is part of the DRIP project (Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project) managed by the Central Water Commission of India and with the financial assistance of the World Bank, to rehabilitate 225 dams within the country.

These guidelines are part of a set of guidelines that contribute to the establishment of the best safety standards, explains Adrián Morales, CTO and partner of iPresas.

“These guidelines are being prepared to support dam safety management and to guarantee sustainability and operational capacity through early identification and rectification of dam safety problems”.

Adrián Morales explains that the focus is on developing a dynamic guideline, which should be updated and reviewed periodically based on advances on knowledge and new techniques, as well as the experience and application of these guideline by end-users.

“These guidelines will describe the principles for a common framework for risk-informed dam safety management at national scale. In addition, it will include the description of an application example for a pilot case in India“, he concludes.

India and dam safety

Currently, India ranks third worldwide with more than 5,200 large dams in operation, thousands of small dams and about 447 under construction.

These infrastructures are vital to ensure water supply and they have an important role in agricultural and rural development. However, dams are aging and several structural deficiencies can be found.

For this reason, in April 2012, the Central Water Commission (CWC), under the Ministry of Water Resources, with the help of the World Bank, initiated the DRIP Project. The project aims at upgrading and improving operational performance of 223 dams located in four states: Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. Two thirds of these dams were built between 1935 and 1985, and four of them are more than a hundred years old.

The Central Project Management Unit (CPMU) is responsible for supervising and coordinating the tasks of the DRIP project, to whom Egis EAU (France) provides engineering and management consulting services.

From January 2018 until May 2018, iPresas will collaborate with EGIS EAU (under a contract with CWC, Ministry of Water Resources of India and the World Bank) to develop these guidelines.

Further information on the DRIP project can be found in the following website: https://www.damsafety.in/