A Dam’s Downstream Consequences

A Dam’s Downstream Consequences

[introductory music]

Voice 1: What makes us human?

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Voice 3: Little termite farm.

Voice 4: Things that create wonder.

Voice 5: Social media.

Voice 6: Forced migration.

Voice 1: What makes us human?

Voice 7: Stone tools.

Voice 8: A hydropower dam.

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Voice 1: Let’s find out. SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human.

Eshe Lewis: In this episode, Parag:speaks with editor in chief of sapiens, doctor Chip Colwell to discuss the social, environmental and political impacts of hydropower dams in Northeast India.

Chip Colwell: All right, let’s get started. Parag. Tell me about yourself.

Parag Jyoti Saikia: Hello, Chip. My name is Parag Jyoti Saikia. I hail from Eastern Assam. Assam is the largest state of Northeast India. I’m currently a PhD student in Socio-Cultural anthropology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For my dissertation, I study a particular hydropower dam called, the 2000 megawatt Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project on the Subansiri River in India. For my dissertation research, I particularly look at its impact in human lives downstream of the dam.

Chip: Okay, so this is a dam. Is that 2000 megawtt you said, is that a big dam? Can you give us a sense of the scale of the project?

Parag: Yes, it is a very large dam, and it is gonna give power not only to the northeast, but also power many other states in India and maybe outside. This dam started sometime in 2005 and it is still not complete. It is expected to be completed in summer this year.

Chip: And how did you get involved in this project? You know, how did you come to this research on the dam?

Parag: Yeah. So actually, I belong to the downstream area itself. My village is in eastern Assam. Also, I want to say here that I belong to a community that is called Konch, which is a lower caste in the Hindu caste hierarchy. It  did play a role in me coming to work on this dam. One of the big things was that around the time the dam started construction, there was a new bus service that was introduced, from the capital city of Assam to the dam site. It used to run through my village. That  was the first time there was an air conditioned bus. It was a Volvo bus with  very comfortable seats. It was a whole celebration. People used to talk about it. It’s like a whole news  about  a new bus. I first didn’t understand where this bus was going. . Like, the name of the place–Gerukamukh–where the dam is constructed. Why is this bus going from the  capital city to this place? I didn’t know much, but soon enough I came to know that a dam is being constructed. And that’s how it kind of generated my interest. But when  I travel by that bus, I used to see a lot of people who were non-Assamese speakers, which is my mother tongue. So that was always interesting. But I think after I completed my undergrad in Delhi University, I got to work with a dam activist in helping him translate some documents from English to Hindi. Around the time I was working with that activist, I used to go to this particular bookstore, called People’s Tree, which was at the heart of Delhi, but now closed. I was there with a friend, and I was looking through the books. There was this professor I knew from the university who was also looking through books. He knew that I’m from Assam. Suddenly this professor came near me and they were like, “You should read this”. And he handed me over a book. The book was called Dossier  on Large Dams for Hydropower in Northeast India. At that point of time I was like, why was he suddenly giving me? But he was a teacher, so I couldn’t say much, so I said  thank you. But I bought it because it kind of picked my interest. After that, I moved back to Assam to do my Master’s in Development Studies. During that time the whole protest against dams was very much in the air.  I got involved and now, like for almost more than a decade, I’m working on this.

Chip: Wow, wow. And having never been to the northeastern region of India, I would love to have a sense of what that’s like.

Parag: Yeah. So Northeast of India comprises eight states. If you look at India’s map, you can think of Northeast as this extended landmass that is kind of extending towards its East. Northeast India is a borderland region. It borders four, foreign countries and these are–  China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan. It is connected to India through a very narrow corridor, which is 12 to 14 miles wide.  This is roughly the length of Manhattan. It has remained, infrastructurally backward and remote. For a long time, this region has been stereotyped as a place where most communities are tribal communities. These are  indigenous communities which in Indian terms are called tribal communities. But there are communities which fall under  the Hindu caste structure.. If you look at a map of Northeast, you will see that a river cuts the region in half. That’s the river Brahmaputra that flows through Assam. Rivers are part of this landscape, especially Assam. It’s a huge part of this landscape. They flow and flood the entire landscape. Because floods happen annually, they have been a big problem for the state and destroy people’s lives. This dam that I’m working on is not just the only dam that is under construction.  There are 167 other dams.

Chip: Oh, wow. Just that region or across India?

Parag: No, 167. Just in one state.

Chip: That’s a bit breathtaking. The scale of what that infrastructure would mean for just  one area.

Parag: Yes, So, Including Subansiri , the number is 168.

Chip: So where exactly is this dam located?

Parag: This particular dam is located between two northeastern states. It is built on the Subansiri river. It is at a place where the river actually flows as the border between  these two states. So at this point where the dam is particularly located, you can think of the river as something that is actually smaller than the Hudson River in New York. So it’s this gorge where the dam is located, the dam wall kind of connects the two states. And then what happens is that once the river leaves that particular gorge, it opens up to a very wide floodplain. It’s like, the dam is in the hills and immediately after that it reaches the plains. So all the upstream behind, everything that is of the dam is in the hills, whereas all the downstream of the dam is in the plains, in the plains of Assam.

Chip: So who are the people that are using this part of the river and live next to it and depend on it?

Parag: There are many communities who live in this part of the river – Sonowal Kacharis, the Kaibartas, people from my community–Konch–also live in the downstream area. The Mising community is one of the largest indigenous communities who actually call the river–Awanori–which in Mising language means mother river. This indicates a more intimate relationship with the river. Mising community is the one who lives closest to the river. They not only live on the banks of the river, but also in the middle of the river, in river islands which are calledChaporis. These are sandbar islands that are formed to sand deposition. They do agriculture, raise livestock, do fishing, and catch logwoods in the river. But not just that, they also build their houses according to the water flows of the river. They live in stilt houses, and the height of the platform of the house is decided by how much the water has risen in the last floods because they have to protect themselves from flood. So in some ways they actually live in sync with the river flows or in sync with the changes in/of the river.

Chip: Can you give us an example of how it’s part of the Mising community’s daily life? How are they depending on the river and connected to the river in a daily sense?

Parag: Sure. I get emotional to talk about it because there are so many ways to think about how people have lived with the river, and throughout my fieldwork I have seen that more closely. But I will use the Oi Ni:Toms or the Mising folksongs to give you an example. One of the renowned scholars of the Mising community, Nahendra Padun has said that if something is not  there in Oi Ni:Tom, it’s not in the Mising society. One of the most common references is the river, is the word Awanori. The other reference is love because it is said that all Oi Ni:Toms are expressions of love. So now if you combine these two themes, you will get a verse like this one.

1st Part of the Oi Ni:Tom (Mising Folk Song): Yumrang among yapu:la,guni arig iatagai. Obonori símadla arig ísíng bidbomakng.

Parag: So it is basically saying that I cultivated the Ahu paddy,  one particular kind of rice variety by clearing the forest. But, Awanori became mad  and eroded everything, like took everything away. There is a second part to it. I will play it for you.

2nd Part of the Oi Ni:Tom (Mising Song): Obonori ru:yido así toko pígodo. Ríksuya:ji émna:mín nommé toyal dunga:né.

Parag: So in this part, it’s kind of a message to the lover that I wait on the banks of the river to meet you, because you come here to take water. As you can hear in this music. It’s a depiction of both the river and longing for the loved one. It also reflects how the river is present in their lives in very mundane ways.

Chip: Wow. Truly speaks to how dynamic the river is. It speaks to livelihood and love. The river itself has a kind of personality that’s really powerful. You know, when I when I think of dams and the consequences of dams, my mind often goes up river. You know, you think about a dam that’s put in place and a lake or some kind of body of water is formed, often impacting those upriver. You know, homes have to be moved and so on. But there’s downstream consequences for rivers, too. And that’s the focus of your work. So can you give us more a sense of what exactly are some of the impacts on downstream lives?

Parag: Yeah, there are large populations that live in the downstream. I would say that the dam will impact the downstream by altering the flows of the river. In a sense that it will release water, but release water in a very controlled manner. Yeah. So, I’ll give you an example. We generally, in the flood season, see a lot of water in the river. In India that is called a monsoon season. Monsoon season generally happened from April to August. Now you see, this monsoon season, the river is flowing at its full speed. When I was doing my fieldwork, I was crossing the river with my friends in the winter season when the water is low. But when the monsoon season came, my own friends were like, no. My regular movement across the river had stopped. And I had to hire a boat with a machine and then actually go inside. That happens for, let’s say, 4 or 5 months in a year. Now, once the dam is completed, you will witness that level of water for four hours every day.

Chip: Wow, wow.

Parag: This impacts how people know the river. In monsoon, people really don’t venture into the river. But in winter, the same riverbed becomes the place, let’s say, to do agriculture, extract sand and and do many other activities. And these are all related with livelihood. Once the dam starts operating, this whole operation has to change because the pattern in which the river will flow will completely change. People can not trust the river anymore. But there are also other ways like fishing will be affected. The dam will impact how the sediment in the river flows, because the sediment is important for the formation of sandbar islands. And there’s also the fear of dam failure.

Chip: Where the dam just breaks and releases masses.

Parag: Yeah, releases masses of water because the entire northeastern region  is in the highest seismic zone of India. And the dam was also located in a fault line.

Chip: Oh, wow. So,  are Misings the only people who are going to be impacted by the dam?

Parag: My answer is both yes and no to this actually. Misings will be most impacted in the downstream because they are the largest population. But, I would also add that it’s not just limited to them.  Downstream is also occupied by communities like Sonowal Kacharis, Kaibartas, Ahoms, Konch, these  different ethnic communities or caste communities. Many of them are also recognized as marginalized – Schedule Tribe and Schedule Caste communities by Indian Constitution.  A survey of some 968 villages, that was done as a part of downstream impact assessment, showed that these areas are economically backward and people are also economically weak. In the survey, it came out that a large population of these areas, agriculture and livestock farming is their main mode of earning a livelihood. But they also very strongly depend on fishing in the river as a way of earning livelihood. So in that sense, I would say that it will impact Mising communities, but also other communities who live downstream.

Speaker 1: We’ll hear more from Parag and Chip after the break.

Chip: You’ve summarized a range of impacts, some probably immediate, like the flow of the river, impacts on fishing, the ability for folks to put their homes next to the river, and then some potentially catastrophic ones, like a dam failure if there was an earthquake. Do people know about these impacts?

Parag: Yes, the people do know about these impacts, but I think there’s a distinction in which impacts they know how. Like, I’ll give you an example, because there has been a history of earthquakes and that has led to flash floods, dam failure and safety of the downstream population has been a big concern in the downstream. So people are aware of like these big disaster’s impact. And it is very valid because during my fieldwork there have been so many landslides and immediately after it left in October, there’s a landslide happened right behind the dam, which dried the river completely for almost 24 hours, and people were able to walk through the river, catch fish with their hands. So people are aware of this big impact that’s going to happen and which is valid. But I think, drawing from my fieldwork, there is still not awareness about it. Because again, it’s a very technical thing in some ways. It took me a lot of time to understand how everyday impacts versus these big impacts are going to happen. So in that sense, I think people are very much aware of the big impacts and what’s going to happen. But I think there is a whole understanding that needs to be built more around the everyday impacts of a dam like the Lower Subansiri.

Chip: For people who are already experiencing some of those impacts or are anticipating them. How are they responding?

Parag: Ummm, the reaction to these impacts have been in the form of protest. The whole downstream came together to protest against the dam, which came to be known as anti dam agitation. This protest actually highlighted what the safety and security concerns for the downstream are. This was one of the first protests in India that was focused on anti dam issues. So activists like Keshav, being a native from the area, started an organization like people’s movement for Subansiri and Brahmaputra Valley and did cycle rallies all along the river to generate awareness of the downstream impact. Gradually, a lot of other statewide student organizations joined in. So that became a really big movement of almost 50 plus organizations. And it is important to note here that the Missing Student Union was at the forefront of this movement because of the impacts that it’s going to have on the community. And along with that, All Assam Students Union and many other organizations actually participated. And that’s how the reaction to the dam was expressed.

Chip: And what do these protests actually look like on the ground? Are they protests in front of offices? Is it writing letters or what does that look like for the community members?

Parag: I think the protest took all these forms. Like there were protests in front of offices. There were pamphlets and many things written down; like letters written to the Prime Minister,  letters written to its Chief Minister. And many of the demands were also made about like, there should be a proper downstream study. What are some of the impacts that are going to be off the dam, and which is where the downstream impact study that I had mentioned earlier, actually came out from the protest. So this protest, which started in 2005, really intensified in 2010, 2011. And one of the methods of these protests was actually to block the roads and stop the trucks and vehicles carrying construction  material to the dam site. So the protest took place literally on the streets. It also happened on the streets that were near my own village. So I witnessed all of this. My remote village, which generally doesn’t appear in the news, I saw the next day in the newspaper and I was like, “Wow, my village suddenly made a name.” So yeah.

Chip: And are these protests working?

Parag: Yes. I think this protest brought to light the downstream impacts of the dam. Because of the protest, the construction of the dam was suspended in 2011. And to identify that, what are the downstream impacts and what the company needs to do to ensure downstream safety, like one of the big things that has happened is, the difference of water flow,that would have happened because of the construction of the dam. The company has actually agreed to release more water throughout the day so that there will be not just a very minimum amount of water, but actually some substantial water in the river.

Chip: And what’s the current status then? Is the dam nearing completion?

Parag: Yes, the dam is nearing completion. Even though it was suspended in 2011, it got restarted after a lot of debates and legal procedures. It restarted in 2019, and it was kind of supposed to be completed in the summer of 2023 when I was doing my fieldwork, but it has been on backlog. Now it is summer of 2024.

I would add here that the construction of the Subansiri Lower Dam has also become a big political issue, because it was one of the first projects of that 168 dam projects. Because it has faced so many protests and it got delayed, progress of several other projects have also been impacted. So the situation is that whether construction of this project makes economic sense, it will be completed and it is on the part of completion. So it’s not just like a dam construction issue. It’s a larger political issue as well.

Chip: Right. And do you see those impacts as political impacts spreading even beyond the Northeast region? I mean, is there something at stake for all of India here?

Parag: Yes. I think the stakes are beyond the Northeast region, because Northeast, as I said, is a borderland region. Subansiri is the only dam that has a part in Assam. All the other dams are in Arunachal Pradesh, which is a contested territory between India and China. China often claims, Arunachal as its own part. So construction of this dam is also a way of establishing state control. It’s not just the dams that have come in. In order to build the dams, there are bridges, new roads, railways and so many other things have come in. So it’s not just related to Northeast, but it’s also a bigger geopolitical concern that is associated with it.

Chip: It strikes me Parag, that your research focus on this dam intersects so many different issues. You know, people’s relationships to water and landscape, using water for livelihood, economic development, environmental impacts, using hydroelectric dams to fight climate change. And yet there are these very immediate local impacts. I mean, there are so many issues, so many ways of thinking about this. What is right now the biggest learning that you’ve had so far and working on this research project?

Parag: There have been so many things I have learned through working on this, and especially because I’m from the area and I see these things in my own life. Drawing from what I have seen, I would see this, that when the dam actually started, as an undergrad student, studying  far away from home and I had to travel so much from bus, and then train. So it was like seeing that finally something is happening to our area like roads are  getting wider, new buses are coming …

Chip: Air conditioned bus.

Parag: Yeah, yeah, the air-conditioned bus. And now railways. These are the ideas of development that people generally have and which I also had as [someone] from the area. But as I started working on this, I delved deeper into how people understand rivers, what are people’s relationship with river,  what are the different meanings that people associate with the river. It has really pushed me to think beyond this idea of development. We understand development, but for whom? Like this concern that yes, it will develop, it will provide energy. But will the people who actually are living with the river in a certain way, how much of this benefit will occur to them? What we have seen so far with development, that doesn’t really happen. So that is one way of thinking about the development, something very culturally I want to think about, like I grew up in the area, I relate to songs and cultural norms that are associated with rivers. Once the dam is constructed and the river flow is changed, will people be able to relate to the river in the same way? Like it’s something that I do nowadays. When I actually listen to some of these songs, I’m like, how should we then think about rivers and flows? So like these are some of the learnings about like development, about my own culture or about my own surroundings, is something I have, really got an opportunity to know more, to learn more. And I feel really humbled by it that I got this opportunity.

Chip: Parag, thank you so much for this conversation. I’ve learned a lot.

Parag: Thank you so much for your time and I really enjoyed talking to you.

[music] 

Eshe: This episode is guest-hosted by Chip Colwell, with reporting by Parag Jyoti Saikia. Parag is currently completing his doctoral dissertation in the department of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Thank you to Keshoba Krishna Chatradhara for contributing to this episode and to Sadananda Payeng for allowing usage of two edited Mising folk songs from his edited volume, Oi Ni:Tom. Additional thanks to Manoranjan Pegu for helping with the translation of Mising folk songs and to Partha Pratim Saikia for helping with Assamese transcripts.

SAPIENS is produced by House of Pod. Cat Jaffee and Dennis Funk are our producers and program teachers. Dennis is also our audio editor and sound designer. Christine Weeber is our copy editor. Our executive producers are Cat Jaffee and Chip Colwell. This episode is part of the SAPIENS Public Scholars Training Fellowship program, which provides in-depth training for anthropologists in the craft of science communication and public scholarship.

SAPIENS is an editorially independent podcast funded this season by the John Templeton Foundation with the support of the University of Chicago Press and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. SAPIENS is part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. Please visit SAPIENS.org to check out the additional resources in the show notes and to see all our great stories about everything human. I’m Eshe Lewis. Thank you for listening.