Water is the driving force for nature. Its storage and management can impact a country’s water and food supplies, as well as its energy security and economy. Managing our precious water assets require the development of systematic management and technological processes along with matching hardware in terms of materials and skills. Dam safety is the discipline which addresses these issues and provides us with the necessary framework to help move towards the goal of a safe and competent dams portfolio.

Dam safety management require diverse disciplines like deployment of cutting-edge technologies, new legislative and governance initiatives, fresh sets of standards and so on.  Dam safety needs to become a collaborative effort where the voices of the regulators and stakeholders will have to find a place in the approaches adopted at national and international levels.

The Dam Safety Society (DSS) is a professional body of all stakeholders, providing a forum where issues can be examined until ‘threadbare’ and “win-win” situations created for all involved.

Experience has shown that although we have a sizeable number of standards and guidelines for new works, such a knowledgebase of standardised practices does not exist for dam safety. The Dam Safety Society will attempt to generate a common knowledge base which can be utilised by all professionals, covering the scientific, technological and managerial aspects of dam safety. It will become a forum for deliberation on the unique challenges posed by existing dams, and for the evolving unique solutions required to ensure their safety.

Increasing concern and urgency

The world witnessed a period of rigorous dam building during the twentieth century. Such efforts have created a large inventory of dams of various sizes and designs in almost all developed and developing countries. Compared with other industrial infrastructure, dams – once built – are very difficult to replace and the benefits accruing from them keep on building exponentially. The malfunction of a dam or its components can have significant economic, social, and often geopolitical impacts too. So in this context, it is imperative that a country’s dam portfolio keeps on performing consistently and without posing unacceptable hazards to populations. Dam safety is the overarching discipline which ensures these outcomes, if applied in a systematic manner.

Although dam safety has received growing recognition since the late 1970s, its spread and application vary greatly across the world, and even across dam owners in a single country. As climate risks evolve, we are having to address the impact of these, while older dams built using state-of-the- art technology of their time, now have to be proven against these new risks.

Globally, most countries are grappling with these issues. Most are concerned but lack the development of necessary capacities to evaluate these problems and arrive at long term decisions. A voluntary body with a non-commercial approach can provide such support because unless we address these issues, our water security risks will not be addressed.

Current status

We would strive to achieve a uniform level of dam safety awareness and capabilities across the globe. We expect to bring up the levels of skills and capacities of the professional communities all across the world to a level where our water infrastructure continues to provide us with water, food and energy security for times to come.

The society will pool the knowledge worldwide and provide forums for knowledge sharing and networking, disseminate experiences in the relevant fields, build skills and capacities- where needed to contribute information on different aspects of dam safety management. It will organize seminars, conferences, workshops, and training courses at national and international levels and other education related activities, to foster career paths to grow the talent pool for the dam industry and will motivate research students and young engineers to join the field of sustainable dam safety management. The society will promote dialogues amongst various stakeholders and facilitate the creation of policies, practices and institutions for needy communities.

Currently, the key office bearers are:

  • Mr. A.B. Pandya, President, DSS and Secretary General, ICID.
  • Mr. Devendra K. Sharma, Vice President, DSS & Hon. Vice President, ICOLD.
  • Dr R K Gupta, Vice President, DSS & Former Chairman, CWC.
  • Mr. Vivek Kapadia, Vice President, DSS and Former Secretary to Govt. of Gujarat and Director (Civil), SSNNL.
  • Mr. Sunil Sharma, Secretary General, DSS & Former Chief Manager, CBIP/INCOLD.
  • Mr. Tarun Agarwal, Treasurer, DSS & Superintending Engineer., Haryana Irrigation Dept.

Many dam safety professionals have joined the DSS as Individual Life Member and assured their contributions in the portfolio of dam safety management. In addition, we have also invited many organisations and institutions to become members of the society, with a large cohort of professionals, academics and policy planners are expressing a keen interest.

The International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) is acting as an incubating organisation for the society. We have invited ICOLD and the IHA to collaborate in charting out a path for awareness and promotion of services in the domain of dam safety where there are huge challenges of capacities and services availabilities in many parts of the world where inputs and expertise of these international organizations will be indispensable.  We are keen to have expert institutions and bodies on board for propagation of the dam safety as a discipline.

Goals of the Dam Safety Society

For such a huge task such as dam safety, fixing timelines will be presumptuous on our part. However, at this stage, the emphasis is on generating awareness in terms of knowledge, skills and capacities for which we are striving hard. We will disseminate our work through online media, an online journal and special publications.

The Dam Safety Society is specifically meant for all individuals and organisations who are interested in dam safety as a discipline at a professional or capacity level. Any other individual and/or organisation from across the globe is welcome to join the society because the issues articulated in the context of India are not specific to a single country or region.

We take this opportunity, to invite the dam professionals and organisations owning dams and those providing hard and soft solutions to the problems of dam safety from all over the globe, to join as individual or institutional members of the Dam Safety Society, to share the concerns and capabilities amongst the dam safety professionals and to build their own strength along with the strength of the dam safety assurance sector.

For more details email: damsafetysociety@gmail.com