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HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies Volume 34 Number 2 Article 9 December 2014 Visualizing Hydropower Across the Himalayas: Mapping in a time of Regulatory Decline Kelly D. Alley Auburn University, [email protected] Ryan Hile University of Utah Chandana Mitra Auburn University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya Recommended Citation Alley, Kelly D.; Hile, Ryan; and Mitra, Chandana. 2014. Visualizing Hydropower Across the Himalayas: Mapping in a time of Regulatory Decline. HIMALAYA 34(2). Available at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol34/iss2/9 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. This Research Article is brought to you for free and open access by the DigitalCommons@Macalester College at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Visualizing Hydropower Across the Himalayas: Mapping in a time of Regulatory Decline Acknowledgements Earlier drafts of this paper were presented at the BAPA-BEN International Conference on Water Resources in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2013 and for the AAA panel on Developing the Himalaya in 2012. The authors appreciate the comments and support provided by members who attended these sessions. Our mapping project has been supported by the College of Liberal Arts and the Center for Forest Sustainability at Auburn University. This research article is available in HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol34/iss2/9 Visualizing Hydropower across the Himalayas: Mapping in a time of Regulatory Decline Kelly D. Alley Ryan Hile Chandana Mitra This paper introduces the busy field of These citizen motivated knowledge exchanges, hydropower development in the Himalayan especially through online portals and social region of the GBM basin to press the urgency media, can even push for better transnational for greater information and data exchange. instruments for formal governmental data The paper provides an example of a mapping sharing. method and a database that will add to the Keywords: Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin, hydroelectric, existing online sources of information and dams, hydropower, India, GIS. analysis offered by nongovernmental agencies and some government departments. This project contributes to the general aim of many citizen groups to limit, monitor and regulate the practices of hydropower companies and the management of their infrastructure in the GBM. The monitoring pressure from citizen groups and science projects continues to serve as an important replacement to the weak functioning of the country environment ministries and corrects the corruptions of the license raj that plaque project deals and environmental clearances. 52 | HIMALAYA Fall 2014 Introduction energy demands of growing populations, the emerging hy- dro-complexity is posing serious risks for basin residents, As the discussion widens on the types of commissions, especially when climate-induced extreme rainfall and citizen organizations and nation-state treaties needed flooding smash up against the obstructions and diversions to ensure sustainable river basin management and solve created by the hydropower industry (Khan et al. 2010; common problems in the transnational Ganges-Brahmapu- Mustafa 2013). Therefore, a greater public awareness of tra-Meghna (GBM) river basin, the lack of access to reliable these concrete structures, their pathways, and their impli- data will be the first challenge to address. All country cations for river flows needs to be facilitated. governments in the GBM basin are hesitant to share their hydrological data on the shared rivers and information Infrastructure Growth and Regulatory Decline on the construction of hydroelectric projects is harder to find. Data and information on land use changes, river The widespread engineering of river systems can be bed and flow regime changes, and actual stages of hydro- conceptually framed in a number of ways, and this paper power project construction should be available to all river follows from the historical, iterative, and dialectical wa- basin residents, scientists, civil society, and governments ter-society understandings engendered by the notions of through online resources, satellite imagery, and aerial hydrosocial cycle (Linton and Budds 2013), hydrosphere photography to facilitate the most conscientious use of (Johnston and Fisk 2013), water worlds (Barnes and Alatout these shared hydrological resources. 2013) and waterscapes (Truelove 2007; Sultana 2013). This paper is focused on creating an approach, a method, and This paper introduces the busy field of hydropower devel- a public database that bring the hydropower infrastruc- opment in the Himalayan region of the GBM basin to press ture to the center of this water-society discussion. There the urgency for greater information and data exchange. are coffer dams and barrages, tunnels and power houses, The paper provides an example of a mapping method and storages, spillways, canals, muck sites and eroding river- a database that will add to the existing online sources of banks, all carved out of the terrain and interfering with the information and analysis offered by nongovernmental hydrosphere of the region. agencies and some government departments. This project contributes to the general aim of many citizen groups to Participatory GIS (Geographic Information System) in this limit, monitor and regulate the practices of hydropower context can help to make these hydropower assemblages companies and the management of their infrastructure more visible to the public. Nongovernmental organiza- in the GBM. The monitoring pressure from citizen groups tions in South Asia have spent considerable time map- and science projects continues to serve as an important ping hydropower facilities but without GIS software and replacement to the weak functioning of the country en- exact locational data. This project follows the strategy of vironment ministries and corrects the corruptions of the mapping infrastructural assemblages as a way to critique license raj that plaque project deals and environmental the functioning of the industry and associated agencies, to clearances. These citizen motivated knowledge exchanges, activate the oversight neglected by state agencies. This is a especially through online portals and social media, can part of the bottom-up resistance to energy infrastructure even push for better transnational instruments for formal (Strauss et al. 2013). When the locations, attributes, and governmental data sharing. problems of specific dams are documented and then exam- ined online by the public, the broader trends in develop- This paper takes the GBM river basin as the hydrosphere, ment across the Himalayas can be cataloged and key risks following Johnston and Fiske (2013), for this documenta- and abuses to communities, as they are related to these tion and examination of hydroelectric facilities. The GBM material infrastructures, can be identified. basin contains all the water that drains the three large riv- er systems and situates the understanding of human life in Participatory GIS has been used since the 1990s to improve the hydrosphere. This is a hydrosphere of glaciers that hug governance across many sectors of public life (McCall the world’s tallest mountains, of snow melt and precipita- 2003). GIS tools and open source modeling have been tion that form the vibrant and sometimes wicked flows of used in tsunami management (Merati 2007), marine oil rivers, and of intimately connected river and cultural life spill response information (Shishuang et al. 2012), flood ways. The 5,000 or more glaciers that make up this hydro- monitoring systems in international river systems (Katiyar sphere are the ‘Third Pole,’ the largest glacial field outside and Hossain 2007), and SWAT in an open source GIS format the North and South Poles (Bahadur 1993; Immerzeel et (George and Leone 2008). Projects have tended to be con- al. 2010). Aesthetically spectacular, they are critical to text and issue-driven, emphasizing community involve- the sustainability of the water flows necessary for all life. ment in the production or use of geographical information But as these rivers are progressively dammed to meet the (Dunn 2007: 616). In this project, the technical work of HIMALAYA Volume 34, Number 2 | 53 entering locational data will be centralized at the universi- billion. The Brahmaputra sub-basin is gifted with water ty, but input and verification can be done by citizens using wealth, hydropower potential, and high biodiversity, while an Internet connection. This kind of division of labor also the waters of the Ganga, Barak, and Meghna are inten- exists in projects connected with water quality monitoring sively utilized for agricultural and industrial production, and REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and urban settlements, power and everyday sustenance. Nepal Degradation) where citizens use a handheld device, phone and Bhutan, the smaller upper riparian countries, have or computer to upload information to an online database. significant hydropower potential and favorable ratios of While this approach can maintain divisions in access to per capita water availability.
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