A recent study led by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati has reignited the debate over whether large dams can balance clean energy goals with the rights of people living downstream. The study, published in the journal Energy Research & Social Science, focuses on the 2,000 MW Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project (SLHEP) in Assam and its impact on downstream communities. The researchers found that while the project has generated jobs, infrastructure, and cleaner electricity, downstream communities continue to face concerns over flooding, declining fisheries, inadequate compensation, and limited participation in decisions that affect their lives.
The study argues that the success of such mega projects should be judged by whether they deliver distributive, procedural, and recognition justice, ensuring that benefits and burdens are shared fairly, affected communities are genuinely consulted, and local knowledge and rights are respected. The study, which drew on field surveys across 27 villages in Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts, found that thousands of local residents found work during construction, and the project has invested in schools, healthcare facilities, drinking water schemes, and skill development initiatives. However, the researchers say these gains have not erased a growing sense of inequity among downstream residents, who continue to fear sudden releases of water, recurring floods, and riverbank erosion.
The study also criticizes the project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA), which covered only a seven-kilometre stretch downstream of the dam, leaving many communities outside the official impact zone despite experiencing repeated floods and erosion. The researchers recommend reforms, including expanding environmental assessments, ensuring equitable benefit-sharing, guaranteeing affordable local electricity, strengthening compensation and grievance mechanisms, adopting river flow rules that protect fisheries and ecosystems, and establishing independent monitoring systems. The study comes at a time when hydropower development is accelerating in the Northeast, with an estimated hydropower potential of nearly 56,000 MW.
The authors conclude that large dams need not become symbols of conflict if governments integrate justice into planning, implementation, and operation. They argue that hydropower can contribute to India’s low-carbon future, but only when communities living closest to the rivers are treated not merely as stakeholders, but as equal partners in the transition.
