The Dam Safety Act 2021: The Institutions

Section 5 provides for its meetings, section 6 saves its proceedings from being invalidated by a vacancy, and section 7 provides for its officers.

Section 8, the functions of the National Committee. To evolve dam safety policies and recommend necessary regulations; to analyse the causes of major dam failures and suggest changes in dam safety practices; and to advise the Central Government on any matter referred to it.

Section 9 constitutes the National Dam Safety Authority as a body corporate with a Chairperson and members.

Sections 10 and 11 provide for its Chairperson, members, officers and their terms.

Section 12, the functions of the National Authority. To implement the policy, guidelines and standards evolved by the National Committee; to resolve issues between a State Dam Safety Organisation and the owner of a dam in that State, or between two State Dam Safety Organisations; to specify regulations for inspection and investigation; to provide technical and managerial assistance to States and to State Dam Safety Organisations; to maintain a national level data base of all dams and of major dam failures; to accord approval to proposals for the construction and modification of specified dams; and, importantly, to perform the role of the State Dam Safety Organisation itself where a dam of one State is situated in another State, or where a dam is owned by a central public sector undertaking, or where it extends over two or more States.

Broken down

"Specified dam" is a size test with a supplementary hazard test. Above fifteen metres, always. Between ten and fifteen metres, only if the reservoir, the crest length, the spillway, the foundation or the seismic zone brings it in. Below ten metres, never.

The National Committee makes policy; the National Authority implements it. That separation is the design, and it mirrors the division between a standard-setting body and a regulator that appears throughout Indian environmental law.

Section 12 is where the federal problem is solved. A dam belonging to one State but standing in another, a dam of a central undertaking, and a dam extending over two States are all taken out of the State organisation's hands and given to the National Authority. Without that clause every inter-State reservoir would have two regulators.

And the national data base under section 12 is the counterpart of section 9A of the 1956 Act. Both exist because the same dispute was being argued twice from two sets of figures.

Worked example

A twelve-metre earthen dam built in 1961 impounds a reservoir of two million cubic metres in a seismic zone IV district, and is owned by a State irrigation department.

Step one, is it a specified dam? It is between ten and fifteen metres, so the supplementary conditions must be examined. A reservoir of that size and a location in a higher seismic zone will bring it within section 2.

Step two, who regulates it? The State Dam Safety Organisation, because the owner and the dam are in the same State.

Step three, what does the owner owe? A dam safety unit, pre-monsoon and post-monsoon inspections, an emergency action plan, and a comprehensive dam safety evaluation at the prescribed interval. The next chapter works those out.

Step four, and if the dam belonged to a neighbouring State? Then by section 12 the National Dam Safety Authority would perform the role of the State Dam Safety Organisation, which is exactly the position of the Mullaperiyar dam, owned by Tamil Nadu and standing in Kerala.

Distinctions

What it does NOT mean

It does not mean the Act applies to every dam. Only to a specified dam as defined, which excludes everything below ten metres and much between ten and fifteen.

It does not mean the Union has taken over dams. The ordinary case remains with the State Dam Safety Organisation. The National Authority takes over only the inter-State and central cases in section 12.

And it does not mean the constitutional question is closed. The Act rests on a contested combination of Entry 56, Entry 97 and article 252 resolutions, and its validity has been challenged.

Quick revision

Specified dam: above fifteen metres; or ten to fifteen metres with an additional condition of reservoir capacity, crest length, spillway, foundation or seismic zone.

Section 4 and 8: the National Committee on Dam Safety evolves policy, recommends regulations and analyses failures.

Sections 9 and 12: the National Dam Safety Authority implements, resolves issues between a State organisation and an owner or between two State organisations, approves construction and modification, maintains the national data base, and acts as the State organisation for a dam of one State standing in another.

Constitutional basis: Entry 56 of List I for inter-State rivers, Entry 97 with article 248, and resolutions under article 252. Contested.

Test yourself

1. What makes a dam a "specified dam"? A height above fifteen metres; or a height between ten and fifteen metres together with a prescribed condition as to reservoir capacity, crest length, spillway capacity, foundation or seismic zone.

2. Distinguish the functions of the National Committee from those of the National Authority. The Committee evolves dam safety policy, recommends regulations and analyses the causes of failures. The Authority implements that policy, resolves issues between State organisations and owners, approves proposals, maintains the national data base and acts as the State organisation in inter-State and central cases.

3. Who regulates a dam owned by one State and situated in another? The National Dam Safety Authority, which performs the role of the State Dam Safety Organisation in that case under section 12.

4. Why is the constitutional basis of the Act contested? Because dams fall within Entry 17 of List II. The Act relies on Entry 56 of List I for inter-State rivers, on the residuary Entry 97 with article 248, and on resolutions passed by some States under article 252.