First International Dam Safety Conference held in Thiruvananthapuram

The first International Dam Safety Conference-2018 was held in Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) from January 23-24, 2018.
It was inaugurated by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and was presided over by Union Minister of State for Water Resources Arjun Ram Meghwal.

Key Facts

This Conference is fourth in series organized under aegis of ongoing Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP). It was organized jointly by Central Water Commission (CWC), Kerala Water Resources Department (KWRD), National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NITC), and College of Engineering, Trivandrum (CET).
As many as 550 delegates from over 20 countries, including US, Switzerland, Spain and Australia took part in the conference. Moreover, seven dam safety manuals developed under DRIP were also released for implementation during the conference.

Dam Health and Rehabilitation Monitoring Application (DHARMA)

A software programme known as Dam Health and Rehabilitation Monitoring Application (DHARMA) was also launched to document authentic asset and health information pertaining to the large dams in the country. DHARMA is a web tool to help dam owners to digitise all dam-related data effectively, store, monitor and take appropriate actions to ensure need-based rehabilitation.

Background

CWC is managing Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) with the financial assistance from World Bank to rehabilitate about 225 dams in India. The earlier conferences organized in years 2015, 2016 and 2017 and had received overwhelming response in terms of professional participation, technical papers contributed and participation by Indian and overseas organizations in the exhibition.
These conferences had brought together dam professionals and experts in various inter-related disciplines from within India and around world to discuss, reflect and share technology and experience in addressing dam safety issues and strategies to address them.

Month: Current Affairs - January, 2018