New Delhi, Jan 22 (UNI) India will host the International Dam Safety Conference - 2018 at Thiruvananthapuram on January 23-24, which will be inaugurated by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The conference will be presided by Union Minister of state for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Water Arjun Ram Meghwal.
The two-day conference is being organized by Central Water Commission in association with Kerala Water Resources Department (KWRD), Kerala State Electricity Board, National Institute of Technology Calicut and College of Engineering, Trivandrum, a statement said.
Dam safety conferences were organised as an annual event under the Dam Safety Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) project run by the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation in seven states of Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand.
Launched in 2012, with a financial outlay of Rs 2,100 cr this World Bank aided project aims at rehabilitation of old dams in the country that may be experiencing distress and are in need of attention for ensuring their structural safety and operational efficiency.
The upcoming conference at Thiruvananthapuram will see the participation of 550 delegates from over 20 countries.
Some of the international experts include Dr Anton J Schleiss, president of the International Commission on Large Dam EPFL Switzerland, Dr Nicholos Schofield, Chief Executive of Australian Water Partnership, Satoru Ueda, Lead Dam Specialist of the World Bank, Dr Martin Wieland, global seismic expert from Switzerland, Dr Ignacio Escuder Bueno, president of Spanish Commission on Large Dams, Technical University of Valencia, Spain, Dr Desmond Harfort, leading dam safety expert, BC Hydro Canada, Mr Angus Swindon, National Director, Entura, Hydro Tasmania, Australia over 140 technical papers will be presented on several aspects of dam safety including case studies.
About 30 national and international organisations are showcasing contemporary developments in technology, materials, instrumentation and their application in addressing dam safety issues during the exhibition being organised during the conference.
Seven dam safety guidelines and manuals developed under DRIP will also be released for implementation during the conference. A software programme - Dam Health and Rehabilitation Monitoring Application (DHARMA) - will also be launched during the conference.
Globally India ranks third after China and the United States in terms of number of large dams (5254 large dams in operation and 447 large dams under construction) with a total storage capacity of about 283 billion cubic meters.
About 80 percent of these large dams are more than twenty-five years old, and about 213 dams exceed the age of 100 years and were built in an era whose design practices and safety considerations do not match with the current design standards and the prevailing safety norms.
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