The 414-kilometre Teesta is a transboundary river that meanders through valleys surrounded by snow-capped Eastern Himalayas, flowing southwards to meet the Brahmaputra in Bangladesh. Over the years, both India and Bangladesh have attempted to create river infrastructures in the form of dams, barrages and irrigation projects to meet energy and water demands. On Wednesday, however, torrential waters from the glacial lake outburst in the mountainous North Sikkim swept off a large portion of the 1200 MW Teesta 3 project near Chungthang town in Mangan district. The Sikkim and West Bengal governments issued alerts, even as large portions of towns along the Teesta and adjacent plains were inundated by the flood waters.
Since the early seventies, the Indian government has been attempting to unlock the hydropower and irrigation potential of Teesta by building dam projects and irrigation barrages in both Sikkim and West Bengal. Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in a report in 2001 estimated that India could generate 50,000 MW from hydroelectric dams. Following CEA’s report, the Indian government along with the state government of Sikkim planned as many as 32 projects in Teesta and its Himalayan tributaries. Many of these projects could not be developed, largely due to the location of these projects as a threat to the indigenous people in North Sikkim, closer to the fragile ecology of the Himalayan expanse.
At present, 17 projects have been installed in the state with a total capacity to generate more than 5,200 MW. On the Teesta itself, there are six mega dams within a distance of 175 kilometres with an estimated capacity of 3,635 MW. These projects have been developed by state-owned as well as private entities.
It was the West Bengal government that first started construction in the Teesta River in 1979. Called the Teesta Barrage, the project was meant to irrigate six districts of West Bengal and provide water supply to North Bengal towns such as Siliguri. The project faced several delays although the first phase of the irrigation project was completed in 1998. The second phase started in 2005 is yet to be completed even as the West Bengal government continues to acquire land to construct more canals to meet the demands. Although there was an ad hoc arrangement of water sharing between India and Bangladesh in the mid-1980s, the agreement was annulled in 1987. Bangladesh has also developed a Teesta Barrage close to the border with India, which is regarded as one of the largest irrigation projects in the country.
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In Sikkim, dam construction started after the Government of India’s newly introduced National Electricity Act in 2003 which fostered privatisation and deregulation. The new Act brought in private as well as state-owned investors such as National Hydro Power Corporation. The first project was Teesta 5 (510 MW) developed by NHPC in 2008 along with Rangit 3 (60 MW), Teesta 3 (1,200 MW), Chuzachen (99 MW) and Jorethang Loop (96 MW).
In 2017, following pressure from activist groups, six projects in the Dzongu Lepcha Reserve were annulled. While activists have been pushing for the review of the hydropower projects across Sikkim and in North Bengal on Teesta and its tributaries, the dam breach of Teesta 3 might lead the government to actually consider the much-needed review.
Also Read | Glacial lake keeps disaster managers on toes in Sikkim