The Punatsangchu Hydropower Projects I is now becoming a joke – a very expensive joke. Today’s Kuensel tells us that the DPR for the proposed barrage to be located 820 Meters upstream of the project will soon be ready – to fill in for the failed Punatsangchu Hydropower Projects I dam construction project.
Either the project managers at the Punatsangchu Hydropower Projects are born idiots, or they are calculatedly acting stupid or they think that the Bhutanese people are complete dullards. Pray, tell me, which donkey will believe that a simple barrage is expected to perform the functions of a massive dam measuring 130 Meters high and 239 Meters long?
How much of their cock-and-bull story are we supposed to tolerate? Look at the following – and see how they have led us up the garden path for the past 14 years since the project started in November of 2008. The project was supposed to come on stream by December of 2016.
Initially the project size was planed at 1,095 MW. Without doing a proper investigation, the project size was increased to 1,200 MW.
PROJECT COST ESTIMATE
The initial projection submitted to Bhutan was Nu.35.149 billion. My estimate is that the cost has now spiraled to over Nu.100.00 billion ---- and counting.
TYPE OF PROJECT
The project authorities of Punatsangchu I & II have been categorical that the projects are run-off-the-river schemes. And yet, for the Punatsangchu I project, they had planned to dam the Punatsangchu river with a dam cutting across the river – measuring a massive 130 Meters high and 239 Meters long. Are we to believe that the project authorities do not know the meaning of run-off-the-river scheme?
PROJECT COMPLETION DATE
The project was supposed to come on stream by December of 2016. The completion date has been shifted over three times already. This is the year 2022 and the project is not even half done. They are still doing DPR that should have been completed way before the start of the project.
HOW CAN A BARRAGE REPLACE A DAM
How is it possible that a simple barrage can replace a massive dam – both in function and purpose - a dam measuring 130 Meters high and 239 Meters long?
Additionally, don’t the project authorities know that a dam and a barrage have two distinctly different functions? From what I am given to understand – a dam is intended to store water and raise its level while a barrage is intended to divert water flow.
THE BARRAGE WILL NOT RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT DROP IN GENERATION
Another complete and utter bullshit! If a barrage was good enough, why was a dam measuring 130 Meters high and 239 Meters long planned for the Punatsangchu Project I? To me it looks like a foregone conclusion that there will be very significant drop in generation – which will result in per unit cost of generation shooting through the roof. This cost will be passed on very generously to the Bhutanese people.
THE PROJECTS ARE SELF-LIQUIDATING
This is another of the claims that get my goat every time I am told this. We are not in the business of liquidating loans at 10% interest. If we are doing hydropower projects at great cost to our environment, we are doing so because we want to generate revenue to fund our developmental activities – not to pay off loans at 10% interest.
How is the project going to offset the Nu 28.00 billion already spent on the failed dam construction project of Punatsangchu I?
A BARRAGE WITHOUT STORAGE CAPABILITY
Even if the barrage’s DPR come off positive and the barrage gets built, it will not have water storage capability. Thus the economics of the project goes for a spin. For sure the overall generation will fall far, far short of the planned and installed capacity of 1,200 MW.
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