Himachal’s latest dam accident points to a pattern of negligence of dam safety

On the morning of May 10, residents of the village of Multhan in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district were about to begin their day, opening up shops in the market and heading out to tend to fields. Suddenly, at around 8 am, water gushed into the market, carrying with it silt and boulders that damaged agricultural fields, shops and houses.

Residents soon identified the cause of the flood – in the higher slopes of Multhan, the 25-MW Lambadug hydropower project, which was under construction, had suffered a failure. Its penstock pipe – the structure that carried water from Lambadug Khad, a tributary of the Beas river, to the power house to generate electricity – had leaked.

Around 80 families suffered losses. Between three and four acres of land with standing crops of potatoes were damaged, as were around 60 shops in the market, according to a local resident who requested anonymity because the administration was still in the process of evaluating and issuing compensation for damages.

The government of Himachal Pradesh had allotted the Lambadug project to KU Hydro Power, which has a common director with Megha Engineering Infrastructure Limited – recently released data on electoral bond purchases revealed that Megha Engineering was the second-highest purchaser of electoral bonds,...

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