Two people lost their lives and four are missing after the artificial pond that stores toxic residue from a coal power plant run by Reliance Power in Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli breached on Friday evening. Singrauli is about 680 km from the state capital Bhopal.

The breach at the Rihand Dam at Reliance’s 3,960-megawatt (MW) Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project occurred at 4 pm on April 10, 2020. The toxic ash started flowing into the dam soon after and also spilled into the villages nearby damaging the crops. Two people who have lost their lives have been identified as Kespati (50) and Dinesh Sahu (38). Four people are still missing. A rescue team has been called from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Varanasi.

The dam that is operated by Sasan Power, a subsidiary of Reliance Power, was incorporated in February 2006. It came up dangerously close to some of the villages in the region. Many activists have been fighting a battle for the past many years for rehabilitation of those who were displaced because of the dam construction and shifting those who were living close to the dam to safer areas.

Sandeep Shah, one such activists, sat on a protest outside the main gate of the Reliance Power Plant in October 2019. Among many demands, the primary demand was to repair the Rihand ash dam. The activists had warned then that if not repaired, the dam breach would cause massive damage.

Talking to Gaon Connection over the phone, Sandeep Shah, said: “After we staged the protest, many departments, including the PWD, had said that the dam won’t breach and the management at the Reliance plant had said they should be held responsible if the breach happens. Now that the dam has breached, who is going to take responsibility?”

He reached the spot as soon as the breach happened. When Gaon Connection spoke to him at about 8 pm on April 10, he informed that some people were missing, a few cattle were washed away and the breach had damaged crops.

KVS Chaudhury, the district collector, informed the media: “We are trying to rescue people. We have called for the NDRF team from Varanasi. We are also taking help from the NTPC and NCL. We will compensate those farmers who have suffered damage to their crops. Even after repeated appeals, the company did not repair the dam. They are responsible for this breach. We will take strict action against them.”  

Developing story …   

In 2019, Gaon Connection did a three-part series on the lives of those who live in the Singrauli-Sonbhadra region that has many coal and power plants.  Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3