Wherefore Art Thou Dithering?

One decision that should have been simple and straightforward - that of abandoning the construction of the PHPA-I - the two governments of Bhutan and India continue to dither - even after 13 long years when it became clear that the geological make of the dam site was unsuitable for the location of a mammoth dam that would store few thousand trillion tons of water for the planned hydropower project!!! Nothing could have been more foreboding, than the first land slide that occurred on the right bank of the Punatsangchu-I dam site - during July of 2013. Since then, two more slides have occurred – second one in 2016 and the last one in 2019.

Punatsangchu Hydropower Project’s erstwhile Managing Director, R N Khazanchi, is credited with the masterstroke of proposing the relocation of the PHPA-I’s dam site to the present unproven and untested location, 1.4 KMs upstream of its originally designated location. This was a decision that one of the Indian experts had unabashedly called “the best example of deceit and dishonesty by the project people”.

In recognition of his exemplary ingenuity, Bhutan honored Khazanchi with one of its highest civilian decorations, the Druk Thuksey Medal, in 2012. Before he exited the Project in 2018, Khazanchi in turn gifted the country with the poetic coinage “geographical surprise” to explain the repeated slides that kept occurring at the PHPA-I’s dam site. If this project—against all logic—proceeds, and such landslides continue to occur in this conspicuously unstable locale, will it still be a “surprise”?

Here I am running the risk of being called an insane person - but I tell you … I get this very disturbing feeling that the two governments of Bhutan and India are actually waiting for something catastrophic to occur! If that is what it is – they may not have to wait too long for their wishes to come true. We are told that the mighty Thorthorme Tsho (lake) in Lunana is all set to breach!

Let alone the danger of Thorthorme lake burst, the world has seen, and continues to see, natural and man-made calamities at a pace, and scale, that is no longer possible to keep track of. To recount a few:

Topping the list is the USofA …. It has been hit by the most devastating calamity humanity has ever known …. in the form of Donald Trump being elected as their President. The world’s leading country has been hit by every form of catastrophe known to humanity – humongous Wild Fires, Storms, Super Typhoons, Tornadoes, Cyclones, Volcanic Eruptions, Earthquakes, plunging helicopters and crashing aircrafts etc. etc.

No country has been spared …. practically every country in the world has been hit by natural disasters brought on by Global Warming. Even more scary, the Himalayan region has experienced unprecedented natural calamities such as Cloudbursts, Flash Floods, Landslides, Earthquakes etc. etc.

Seismologists and geophysicists have long predicted that a super earthquake in the Himalayan region is long overdue. They offer the reason that it will be caused by the release of the accumulated tectonic pressure in the area where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates continue to collide. I understand that it is not a question of IF … but of WHEN the hit will come. But it is predicted to come … there does not appear to be any doubt about it.

So … can we be more responsible to ourselves, our future generations, and to those lifeforms downstream of the Project …. and finally take the decision to abandon the PHPA-I project for good?

We simply cannot continue to take the risk – it would be dumb to do so!