DSpace at VNU: International small dam safety assurance policy benchmarks to avoid dam failure flood disasters in developing countries

DSpace at VNU: International small dam safety assurance policy benchmarks to avoid dam failure flood disasters in develo...

Accepted Manuscript International small dam safety assurance policy benchmarks to avoid dam failure flood disasters in developing countries John D Pisaniello, Tuyet Thi Dam, Joanne L Tingey-Holyoak PII: DOI: Reference: S0022-1694(15)00829-X http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.09.077 HYDROL 20825 To appear in: Journal of Hydrology Received Date: Revised Date: Accepted Date: 12 July 2015 11 September 2015 12 September 2015 Please cite this article as: Pisaniello, J.D., Dam, T.T., Tingey-Holyoak, J.L., International small dam safety assurance policy benchmarks to avoid dam failure flood disasters in developing countries, Journal of Hydrology (2015), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.09.077 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain International small dam safety assurance policy benchmarks to avoid dam failure flood disasters in developing countries Dr John D Pisaniello Sustainable Engineering, Accounting and Law Group School of Commerce UniSA Business School University of South Australia City West Campus, North Terrace ADELAIDE SA 5000 Tel: +61 8302 0031 Fax: +61 8302 0992 Email: John.Pisaniello@unisa.edu.au Ms Tuyet Thi Dam Research group on Natural Resources and Environmental Economics Faculty of Development Economics University of Economics and Business Vietnam National University 144 Xuan Thuy str., Cau Giay dist., Ha Noi Tel: (84.4) 37547506 + 309 Fax: (84.4) 37546765 Email: tuyetiet@gmail.com Dr Joanne L Tingey-Holyoak* Sustainable Engineering, Accounting and Law Group School of Commerce UniSA Business School University of South Australia City West Campus, North Terrace ADELAIDE SA 5000 Tel: +61 8302 0462 Fax: +61 8302 0992 Email: Joanne.Tingey@unisa.edu.au September 2015 *Corresponding author International small dam safety assurance policy benchmarks to avoid dam failure flood disasters in developing countries Abstract In developing countries small dam failure disasters are common yet research on their dam safety management is lacking This paper reviews available small dam safety assurance policy benchmarks from international literature, synthesises them for applicability in developing countries, and provides example application through a case study of Vietnam Generic models from ‘minimum’ to ‘best’ practice (Pisaniello, 1997) are synthesised with the World Bank’s ‘essential’ and ‘desirable’ elements (Bradlow et al, 2002) leading to novel policy analysis and design criteria for developing countries The case study involved 22 on-site dam surveys finding micro level physical and management inadequacies that indicates macro dam safety management policy performs far below the minimum benchmark in Vietnam Moving assurance policy towards ‘best practice’ is necessary to improve the safety of Vietnam’s considerable number of hazardous dams to acceptable community standards, but firstly achieving ‘minimum practice’ per the developed guidance is essential The policy analysis/design process provides an exemplar for other developing countries to follow for avoiding dam failure flood disasters Key words – small dam failure disasters, dams management, policy analysis and design, developing countries, Vietnam case study Introduction Dam failure disasters are a great concern all over the world especially in developing countries where dam safety has been given little attention (WB, 1990; Dam, 2011) In developing countries, small dams account for over 90% of dam failure disasters which often have catastrophic consequences for the downstream community, infrastructure and the environment (ICOLD, 2011) A large number of notable failures of small dams with disastrous consequences have occurred throughout the world For example, a small 10 meter high, 2000 ML earthen dam outside Jakarta in Indonesia failed by overtopping in 2009 (The Associated Press, 2009) At least 96 people were killed, 130 displaced and significant infrastructure and property was lost and damaged (The Associated Press, 2009) The Shimantan and Banquia dams failed in 1975 in Henan province in Central China because of the cumulative failure of 60 small dams in the upstream catchment area Around 230,000 people were killed, more than million hectares of land were inundated and over 100 km of the Beijing-Guangzhou railway line damaged in this disastrous cumulative dam failure (Fu and Qing, 1998; Fuggle and Smith, 2000) Furthermore, these structures not only age but over time, the physical areas of catchments have changed and continue to change significantly due to human activity meaning dam failure disasters that threaten life are set to increase (Jothityangkoon et al., 2013) In developing countries, growing water resources infrastructure development combined with older infrastructure deterioration and mismanagement has meant organisations around the world are looking for tools and methods for how to improve the situation, including increased data collection, performance measurement and rankings (Berg and Corton, 2007) Amongst these methods, benchmarking methodologies have emerged as a valuable information system for policymakers and managers that pinpoints the areas that should be targeted for future initiatives whilst allowing them to evaluate the impacts of past interventions (Berg and Corton, 2007) Benchmarking is the process of comparing and measuring policy and practice against others to gain insights into the optimal measures for rapid improvement toward best-practice performance (Bowerman et al., 2002; Yasin, 2002) The process of benchmarking has been used extensively to rank and implement a wide variety of policy management practices and techniques (Yasin, 2002) and is useful for issues such as farm dam safety management (Tingey-Holyoak et al., 2011) In the developed world, benchmarks for dam safety management are receiving increased attention from both academics and practitioners because many small dams are neither constructed nor managed adequately1 (Bradlow et al., 2002; Tingey-Holyoak et al., 2011) However, in developing countries there exists a lack of awareness of the dangers of poor dam safety management practice and impacts (Levitan, 2014; Dam, 2011), policy is often not strong or wellenforced and cumulative dam failure effects are more likely (Levitan, 2014) Therefore, internationally benchmarked dam safety assurance policy guidance is needed to help developing countries design policies (Jha et al., 2012) that will ensure dams are constructed and risk managed to an acceptable standard, and as cost-effectively as possible, in order to save downstream lives, business, property and the environment that are too often lost as a result of dam failures Vietnam has one of the largest dam systems in the world The dam network comprises over 750 medium and large dams and thousands of small dams in close proximity (Dao et al., 2000; Silver, 1999; WB, 2004) But at present, the country has no national record of either small dams or their problems, for example location, dam type and size, hazard rating, condition etc There has been no systematic collection of data on dam failures and there have been no specific approaches to determine associated impacts or economic losses of failure (Nguyen, 2007) Ad hoc evidence suggests that many dam safety problems and notable dam failures have occurred in various provinces in Vietnam but have often been unreported (Nguyen, 2003) These failures have taken Adequate construction here refers to ensuring adequate planning, design and construction of new dams or upgrade of existing dams, especially with respect to the three key areas of dam engineering: structural integrity, spillway flood capability and earthquake resistivity Adequate management refers to appropriate surveillance, maintenance and review of existing dams – items that should be reviewed periodically include hazard rating (as this can change throughout the life of a dam due to new community developments downstream) and spillway flood capability (due to changes in engineering standards and design rainfalls brought about, for example, by climate change) See also ANCOLD (2003) and Pisaniello et al (2012) hundreds of lives and have caused devastating impacts on property and the environment (Nguyen, 2007; Silver, 1999) Even from just this limited recorded information, it is apparent that the costs of dam failures, including the associated threats to the security of agricultural produce (Gohar et al., 2015) are significant (Nguyen, 2003; 2007, Silver, 1999; Dam, 2011) Policy tools to drive better practice and establish levels of standards for operating are required (Yasin, 2002) Therefore, the research aims to investigate the available dam safety policy benchmarks2 and synthesise them to enable application to developing countries, and then apply these specifically to the case of Vietnam in an exemplary way The core research question addressed is “What international dam safety policy benchmarks can assist Vietnam to assure small dams are constructed and managed to an acceptable safety standard?” The remaining sections of the paper are structured as follows: Section reviews available literature and synthesizes international dam safety policy benchmarks to identify models, guidelines and selection criteria for determining necessary assurance models for developing countries Section provides results of the micro level on-site dam safety surveys in Tan Moc commune, Bac Giang province In Section 4, a descriptive analysis of relevant macro level policy, laws and regulations on small dam safety management in Vietnam is presented and then analysed comparatively against the international benchmarks established Section provides a summary and discussion of the results and the associated implications, Section concludes the paper with the answer to the core research question and with final discussion of the implications for Vietnam in particular and developing countries in general That is, internationally benchmarked policy elements ranging from minimum to best practice that governments can use to assure the community that dam owners/managers construct and manage dams to an acceptable risk standard Review and synthesis of international benchmarks and guidelines for necessary policy in any jurisdiction including developing countries Considerable work on international dam safety policy benchmarks has been done based on comprehensive review and comparative assessment of dam safety management responsibility, accountability and assurance practices in a large number of countries (Bradlow et al., 2002; Pisaniello et al., 2012; Tingey-Holyoak et al., 2011) Underpinning these studies are the three benchmark models initiated by Pisaniello (1997) that are “best practice”, “average practice” and “minimum practice” These three models are in line with the socio-ecological objective to balance the need for public and environmental protection (Sanchez et al., 2014) with the imposition of restrictive and expensive requirements on builders and owners The models, the criteria necessary to apply them and their application to Australian jurisdictions have been reported most recently in Pisaniello et al (2012) However, these models were developed primarily based on and for application to developed countries In contrast, the World Bank’s “regulatory frameworks for dam safety” (Bradlow et al., 2002) were derived to include application to developing countries The problem is that the World Bank frameworks are descriptive only (see section 2.1 below) and not provide for any criteria on how to apply them for varying circumstances as the Pisaniello (1997) models (see Pisaniello et al., 2012; Tingey-Holyoak et al., 2011) Hence, there is a need to synthesise the Pisaniello (1997) models with the Bradlow et al (2002) frameworks in order to establish updated models and criteria representing minimum to best practice that is applicable to varying circumstances (ie the number of hazardous dams within a jurisdiction and the number that are deficient) for both developed and developing countries In this Section the World Bank models will firstly be described (Section 2.1) and their synthesis with the Pisaniello (1997) models will then follow (Section 2.2) 2.1 A summary of World Bank’s Regulatory Frameworks for Dam Safety (Bradlow et al., 2002) The Bradlow et al., (2002) study involved a detailed comparative assessment of dam safety regulatory frameworks in 22 countries including developing countries such as China and India The study provides information to policy makers and technical experts in countries that are planning to develop new or to modify existing regulatory frameworks for dam safety It highlights the main similarities and differences in the approaches adopted by the 22 countries, enabling general precedents to be set for both “Essential” and “Desirable” elements of a dam safety regulatory scheme The essential elements include those that any regulatory scheme needs if it is to be capable of performing the most essential functions with regard to dam safety, such as assuring that dams satisfy minimum international safety standards The desirable elements are simply additional ones that can be adopted by regulators for providing a higher level of dam safety assurance This subsection reviews the principal part of Regulatory Frameworks for Dam Safety by Bradlow et al (2002): ‘Part 3: Essential and Desirable Elements for Dam Safety’ 2.1.1 Essential elements of a regulatory scheme Bradlow et al., (2002, p.72) found from the international comparative analysis of the 22 countries that the common general principles underlying dam safety are that (i) the owner4 is responsible for making the dam safe and for its safe operation and maintenance and (ii) the regulator is responsible for protecting the public by establishing dam safety standards and monitoring compliance by the owners5 Hence the four essential elements discussed below are intended to The counties were selected based on the availability of information about their dam safety regulatory frameworks and comprised Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, India, Ireland, Latvia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States “Owner” here is intended to be used broadly as it can include private owners as well as other forms of ownership, eg public dams owned by government on behalf of the public or any other person/s or entity that is/are legally responsible for the dam under any applicable law of a country This is also in line with ANCOLD (2003, p.3) which follows international standards set by the International Committee on Large Dams (ICOLD), stating that “A role of Government is to enact legislation to protect the community Legislation should establish regulatory authorities that ensure dam owners, and authorities that ensure dam owners, are taking appropriate actions in regard to dam safety” Furthermore, Bradlow et al., (2002, p.2) found from its international comparative study that “A failure to pay attention to dam safety can cause a country to violate its obligations under existing international treaties and conventions, such as satisfy these principles by (i) clarifying that the dam owner is responsible for dam safety and that regulators are responsible for monitoring performance in this regard, (ii) specifying that owners have operational and maintenance responsibilities, and (iii) explaining the ways in which the regulatory authority can perform its monitoring functions, which can include inspections and penalisation of non-complying owners (Bradlow et al., 2002, p.73) Clearly articulated laws The regulatory structure comprises documents that are publicly available and stipulate in clear terms the aforementioned responsibilities The forms of these differ widely across the world It is the authors’ opinion that a national scheme with national guidelines that a provincial government administers is the best arrangement—not as in Australia where each state has different laws (see Pisaniello, 2011) which has led to non-uniform dam safety legislation across Australia: residents in one state, for instance, may be exposed to a different hazard and standard of care because the state has not paid attention to the issue Clear identification of regulatory agencies involved, and clear power and funding to enforce the regulations The essential element relates to separation of the regulatory agency from those who make decisions about whether to build dams and from those who own and/or operate them This separation of powers has been a fundamental tenet of Australian water law and administration since the COAG reforms of 1994 An adequate budget for the exercise of laws is essential or else they become meaningless Powers of the regulatory authority These include the power to: (i) identify and enforce national norms; (ii) comment on the issue of permits; (iii) monitor inspection by others and approve the inspector selected by the owner; (iv) conduct its own inspections; (v) maintain a register of regulated dams; (vi) advise dam owners those relating to transboundary watercourses and the environment It can also have an adverse impact on the state’s ability to perform its international financial obligations, thereby undermining its overall development strategy” and other interested parties, such as affected communities, on dam safety issues; (vii) issue public reports on dam safety; and (viii) enforce the dam safety framework (Bradlow et al., 2002, p.75) Content of the scheme The international community points to these as widely followed standards (Bradlow et al., 2002, p.79): (i) establish clear criteria with which to determine dams requiring regulation (based on size and the nature of the hazards); (ii) address dam safety in a life-cycle approach; (iii) clarify that the owner is primarily responsible but that the operator can be deemed the owner; (iv) stipulate standards, international, such as ICOLD, or locally based; (v) demand that owners supply regulators with periodic reports, the frequency of which may reflect characteristics such as life stage and size; (vi) insist that the owner maintain complete records at a convenient location; (vii) require that all dams have an operations maintenance manual and an adequate budget; (viii) impose fees that cover the cost of the dam safety activities of the regulatory authority; and (ix) require an emergency plan for high hazard dams 2.1.2 Desirable attributes of a regulatory scheme This list covers items in addition to those above; many are aspirational (see Bradlow et al., 2002, pp 86−88): (i) the exclusive devotion of the dam safety agency to dam safety; (ii) a dam safety advisory committee skill base of technical experts and representatives of affected communities; (iii) overarching coordination roles for the dam safety agency; (iv) the granting of power to the dam safety agency to inspect periodically all high hazard dams, and technical archives of the dam to be made available to it; (v) dam licences that require a failure impact assessment with regard to communities, property and the environment; (vi) the development of broad-based benchmarks, including structural, environmental, social, health and economic factors, to gauge dam safety at all dams; (vii) a periodic review by the owners of all dams to test compliance with the stipulations of These elements are also in line with ANCOLD (2003) which is guided by the International Committee on Large Dams (ICOLD) order to achieve this, it is essential for the Vietnamese government, policy makers and local authorities to place a higher value on lives of the local community through providing hazard classification of dams according to both hazard posed and risk For developing countries worldwide, this can only be achieved if the local communities who live under the threat of dam failure disaster are empowered and involved in local dam safety management and preparedness Acknowledgements This research was made possible thanks to the following key people and organisations Much appreciation is extended to Associate Professor Nguyen The Quang, Dr Le Trung Tuan, Mr Dang Duy Hien, Mr Dam Van Dung, and Mr Nguyen Ngoc Quang who enthusiastically supported the execution of data collection in Vietnam The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Australian Government is also gratefully acknowledged for the financial support provided in the form of an Endeavour Scholarship Professor Roger Burritt is also acknowledged for his involvement in this research prior to his retirement from UniSA Thanks also to Mr Arthur Spassis from UniSA for his specialist research assistance with on-site dam survey training 28 References The Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD) (1994) Guidelines on Dam Safety Management The Australian National Committee on Large Dams, Hobart The Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD) (2000) Guidelines on Selection of Acceptable Flood Capacity for Dams The Australian National Committee on Large Dams, Hobart The Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD) (2003) Guidelines on Dam Safety Management, The Australian National Committee on Large Dams, Hobart Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD) (2012) Guidelines on the Consequence Categories for Dams, The Australian National Committee on Large Dams, Hobart Berg, S., and M.L Corton (2007) Water Utility Benchmarking for Managerial and Policy Decisions: Lessons from Developing Countries In International Water Association Conference on Performance Assessment of Urban Infrastructure Services, March 2008 Bradlow, D.D., A Palmieri, and S.M.A Salman (2002) Regulatory Frameworks for Dam Safety: A Comparative Study The World Bank, Washington D.C Bowerman, M., Francis, G., Ball, A and Fry, J (2002) 'The Evolution of Benchmarking in UK Local Authorities' Benchmarking: An International Journal, 9(5), 429-449 Dam, T (2011) An investigation of the safety of small dams in Vietnam and responsibility for their management Masters Thesis, University of South Australia, Adelaide Available at: http://arrow.unisa.edu.au:8081/1959.8/151658 Dao, T.T., T.N To, and T.D Nguyen (2000) 'Dam and Reservoirs Planning Process in Vietnam: Responding to Competing Needs' The Commission's East / South-East Asia Regional Consultation, The World Commission on Dams, pp 1-5 Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) (2007) Your Dam - Your Responsibility: A Guide To Managing the Safety of Farm Dams, The Victorian Government Department of Sustainability and Environment, Melbourne Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (FMAF) (1997) Dam Safety Code of Practice 7b/1997 Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry pp 91 Fu, S., and D Qing (1998) 'A Profile of Dams in China' in J.G Thibodeau and P.B Williams (eds) The River Dragon has come! The Three Gorges dam and the fate of China's Yangtze river and its people Probe International and International Rivers Network, Armonk 29 Fuggle, R., and W.T Smith (2000) Experience With Dams in Water and Energy Resource Development in The People's Republic Of China The World Commission on Dams, London Gohar, A.A., Amer, S.A., and Ward, F.A (2015) Irrigation infrastructure and water appropriation rules for food security, Journal of Hydrology, 520, 85-100 Govenrment of Vietnam (GVN) (2007) Decree on dam safety management National Legal Database, Ha Noi The International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) (2011) Small dams: design, surveillance and rehabilitation The International Committee on Large Dams, Paris, France Jha, A.K., R Bloch, and J Lamond (2012) Promoting integrated urban flood risk management, in Cities and Flooding: A Guide to Integrated Urban Flood Risk Management for the 21st Century The World Bank, Washington, p 583-619 Jothityangkoon, C., Hirunteeyakul, C., Boonrawd, K and Sivapalan, M (2013) Assessing the impact of climate and land use changes on extreme floods in a large tropical catchment, Journal of Hydrology, 490, 88-105 Levitan, D (2014) 'As Small Hydropower Expands, So Does Caution on Its Impacts' Yale360, 4th August Ministry of the Environment, Land and Planning (MELP) (1998) Dam Safety Guidelines: Inspection and Maintenance of Dams Ministry of Environment British Columbia 79 Nguyen, T.X (2003) Dam Safety Problems in Vietnam and in Some Countries in the World Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development, Ha Noi Nguyen, T.X (2007) Dam Safety: Institutional and Policy Issues Vietnam National Committee on Large Dams, Ha Noi Pisaniello, J.D (1997) Analysis and Modelling of Private Dam Safety Assurance Policy and Flood Capability Design/Review Procedure., PhD Thesis, University of South Australia, Adelaide Available at http://arrow.unisa.edu.au:8081/1959.8/82294 Pisaniello, J.D (2011) 'A Comparative Review of Environmental Protection Policies and Laws Involving Hazardous Private Dams: ‘Appropriate’ Practice Models for Safe Catchments' William and Mary: Environmental Law and Policy Review 35 pp 515-581 Pisaniello, J.D., and J McKay (1998) 'Models of ‘Appropriate’ Practice in Private Dam Safety Assurance' Water Policy 1(5) pp 525-550 30 Pisaniello, J.D., J Tingey-Holyoak, and R.L Burritt (2012) 'Appropriate Small Dam Management for Minimizing Catchment-Wide Safety Threats: International Benchmarked Guidelines and Demonstrative Cases Studies' Water Resources Research 48 The Associated Press (2009) 'Death toll rises to 96 in Indonesia dam failure' The Associated Press, 29th March 2009 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29937788/ (accessed on 13 August 2014) Sanchez, G M., Nejadhashemi, A P., Zhang, Z., Woznicki, S A., Habron, G., Marquart-Pyatt, S., & Shortridge, A (2014) Development of a socio-ecological environmental justice model for watershedbased management Journal of Hydrology, 518, 162-177 SCNA (2001) The Ordinance: exploitation and protection of irrigation systems The National Legal Database, Ha Noi Silver, L.M (1999) Enhanced Reservoir Management Capacity for Environmentally Sustainable Rural Development The United Nations Development Program, Ha Noi Tingey-Holyoak, J., J.D Pisaniello, and R.L Burritt (2011) 'Analysis and Application of International Dam Safety Policy Benchmarks' Benchmarking: An International Journal 18(2) pp 1-14 The World Bank (WB) (1990) Dam Safety and the Environment The World Bank Group, Ha Noi The World Bank (WB) (2004) Vietnam Water Resources Assistance Project The World Bank, Ha Noi Yasin, M.M (2002) 'The Theory and Practice of Benchmarking: Then and Now', Benchmarking: An International Journal 9(3) pp 217-243 31 Table Updated Model Benchmarks and their Elements (synthesizing Pisaniello (1997), Tingey-Holyoak et al (2011) and Bradlow et al (2002)) 32 Table Updated guidelines for determining necessary dam safety assurance policy for any jurisdictiona 33 Table Physical characteristics and safety problems that exist with the 22 small dams surveyed 34 Table Rated comparison of Vietnam’s dam safety legislation against available international benchmarks Figure Dam safety assurance benchmarking research 35 Figure Institutional arrangements for reservoir and dam management at the central and local levels in Vietnam Sources The Ordinance on exploitation and protection of irrigation works (SCNA, 2001) and Decree No.72 on dam safety management (GVN, 2007) 36 Research Highlights  Research into small dam failure disasters in developing countries is limited  Global dam safety assurance policy benchmarks reviewed, synthesised and applied  Case study of Vietnam finds major physical, management and policy inadequacies  Policy analysis/design process an exemplar for other developing countries to follow 37 Elements Dam owner/ manager education and guidance Essential and Desirable Best Practice Model Dam owners need to be educated to understand their responsibilities and liabilities associated with their dams in line with both common law and the prevailing dam safety regulations Education and guidance are often provided through guideline publications e.g ANCOLD (2003), DSE (2007), MELP (1998), and provide information on the possibility of insuring against dam failure (Pisaniello et al., 2012) Essential Average Practice Model As per minimum practice model Registration and Classification of Dams Establish and maintain a register of “applicable dams” that should be regulated, based on a minimum size criteria and using a permit or licensing system Also, assign general hazard ratings based on a 3-level hazard rating system eg ANCOLD (2003) As per minimum practice model Community education and preparedness Provide for community education, awareness and preparedness through the requirement of Emergency Action Plans (EAP) for all High and Significant hazard dams Such plans informs all people living downstream of hazardous dams of the risks and hazards under which they are living Furthermore, the plans provide an opportunity for escape in the event of failure As per minimum practice model Legislative Purposiveness Administrative Authority and Empowerment Establish clearly articulated and publicly available enabling legislation which at least provides power to local government authorities to question the safety of any private dam and direct necessary owner action following approval from the Minister responsible for water resources An administrative authority needs to be clearly identified, adequately empowered and sufficiently funded to enforce the legislation established under Element above Surveillance, inspection and safety reviews Create clearly articulated dam safety legislation either in the form of Specific or Enabling Legislation: Specific Legislation- where strict provisions and regulations are established and publicly available within a specific dam safety Act; Enabling Legislation - where provisions are incorporated within existing Water Law enabling dam safety management to be controlled and demands owners report periodically, budget for dam safety and have Emergency Action Plans An administrative authority needs to be clearly identified, adequately empowered and sufficiently funded to enforce the legislation and any standards provided under regulation Exclusive devotion of the Authority to dam safety is desirable Powers of the authority should also include (i) identifying and enforcing national norms, (ii) administering permits, (iii) monitoring dam safety inspections and inspectors provided for by owner, (iv) conducting its own inspections (v) maintaining register of regulated dams, (vi) advising all interested parties including affected communities on dam safety issues, and (vii) issuing public reports Establish standards in the design, construction, maintenance and upgrading of dams – the higher the hazard rating of the dam the higher the standard to be met Require dam owners to arrange for a minimum level of periodic surveillance and review of their dams against the None Minimum Practice Model Provide for extensive owner education and guidance to help owners understand their common law responsibilities and liabilities associated with their dams and to strongly encourage surveillance and maintenance of dams by producing and promoting guideline publications in line with ANCOLD (2003) Require local government authorities to maintain registration of at least High and Significant hazard dams, and provide data for central government to monitor the density of potentially hazardous dams Provisions of the community ‘right to know’ principle are mandated by law and administered by, say, local governments The owners of High and Significant hazard dams are required to provide for Emergency Action Plans (EAPs) checked by State Emergency Services Sufficient legislation needed to enable Elements and above None Dam owner/ manager responsibility with information Punitive enforcement Federal/ central government involvement standards to ensure adequate maintenance and upgrading is occurring, by contracting experienced engineers and subsequently allocate responsibility for gathering data and reporting all information to the relevant enforcement authority The enforcement authority must also periodically conduct formal inspections to review surveillance information Establish an enforced level of owner responsibility with any information and material relating to the safety of their dams by requiring owners to maintain a special safety file that must be easily accessible to all concerned, especially when an accident threatens Attach, under legislation, criminal liability (and/or severe penalties) to any owners not willing to comply with either standard requirements, rules or regulations specified or promulgated under statute or directions given by an enforcement authority in line with statutory provisions Providing federal initiative to investigate and encourage adequate and uniform dam safety assurance policy at the State or regional level None None None None None None c Level Indicator : potentially b hazardous private dams > 70 > 70 20 - 70 Level Indicator : deficient d potentially hazardous private dams > 20 20 20 - 70 20 - 70 < 20 < 20 10 - 20 < 10 >2 0, or Equivalent policy model to be implemented e f Best practice model Average practice model Review situation in 15 years Average practice model Review of deficient dams in years: if still >20, upgrade to best practice Average practice model Review situation in 15 years Minimum practice model Review in 10 years Minimum practice model Review in years Do nothing; advise owners of the deficient dams of their responsibility under common law Review situation in 10 years Notes: a Data adapted from Pisaniello (1997), Pisaniello and McKay (1998; 2007) b This refers to the total number of potentially hazardous private dams contained within a Country or State For primary exploration, ‘potentially hazardous dams’ can be taken as those which are significant in size and pose either a High or Significant hazard potential (i.e in accordance with ANCOLD (2000; 2003; 2012) classifications) Secondary consideration should then also be given to smaller catchment dams that pose cumulative flood threats within catchments Government would have to establish an inventory of all such dams in a region if one is not already in place c Deficiency can result from either inadequate dam condition/maintenance level/structural integrity, insufficient spillway flood capability or inadequate earthquake resistivity, as determined from a safety review A cost effective spillway review procedure that is in line with modern engineering practice has been developed and can also be used for this purpose Review can be undertaken on a sample of, e.g., 10–20 potentially hazardous private dams in a region (rather than the entire population), and the resulting percentages that are found to be inadequate can be translated to the overall population Such modest sampling (regardless of population size) is considered adequate given that most existing dams will have insufficient spillway capacities when reviewed anyway; this situation is largely due to significant, recent advances made in the fields of meteorology and flood hydrology whereby design floods are commonly found to be considerably greater than the floods which could cause failure of existing dams (Pisaniello, 1997; Pisaniello and McKay, 2007) Hence, it will not take much sampling in order for the sample itself to exceed many of the level criterion, irrespective of translating to the entire population d Level indicator guidelines are not intended to provide a basis for “relaxing” existing policy once the number of deficient dams is reduced For jurisdictions with already established and satisfactory dam safety assurance policy (with the exception of “best practice model” jurisdictions), the level guidelines are intended to provide a finer basis for checking periodically whether there is a need to move up to a higher practice model For jurisdictions that initially are either “policy absent” or “policy deficient” the level guidelines are merely intended to act as an optional, finer initial guide For example, a government can initially choose to adopt only level indication and immediately implement the most conservative/strongest policy model option in the relevant level range Alternatively, government can initially choose to adopt only level indication and begin implementing the least conservative policy option from the level Indicator range It would then need to review the situation in at least years via level indication to check if there is a need to move up to a stronger practice model e The key elements of each policy model are available in Table 1, (see also Pisaniello 2011 and Pisaniello and McKay, 1998) f If there has been no prior provision of the minimum or average practice models, government could start with a model of average practice, and review the situation in years to check if the situation has improved If the situation has improved enough within the criteria of these guidelines, then policy can remain with average practice model, otherwise there is a need to move up to the best practice model Dam No Height (m) Storage capacity (ML) 600 Hazard rating Higha 800 High 500 High 500 High 150 High 1.5 50 High 600 High 2.5 350 High 300 High 10 100 High 11 3500 High 12 3000 High 13 6.5 600 High 14 150 High 15 10 100 High 16 100 High 17 50 High 18 40 High 19 30 High 20 21 22 Notes: Main problems associated with dam safety Excessive vegetation on the upstream, downstream and the crest The crest is uneven Upstream and downstream faces of embankment are substantially eroded The crest is damaged by traffic: dip on the crest Slide on the upstream and excessive vegetation on the downstream faces Traffic damage and slide on the downstream face The top crest is damaged by traffic: dip on the crest Slide on both upstream and downstream Excessive vegetation and trees The crest and downstream face is severely damaged by traffic Slide on both downstream and upstream faces of embankment The crest is uneven with large holes and cracking on the top (serious) Slump/slide on the downstream face of embankment into the reservoir Outlet is very old and cracking Slide on embankment Embankment is very thin Spillway is too small Slide and cracking on the top, crest is very uneven Small and very old outlet pipe; no spillway exists Excessive large trees over embankment Crest is damaged by traffic, it is uneven, with low areas and large hole Slide on the upstream face of embankment Small outlet and very small spillway, with the spillway being blocked Failed in 2008 and repaired in 2009 Slide on both upstream and downstream faces of embankment The crest is damaged by traffic Outlet is broken and spillway is too small and severely blocked The crest is damaged by the traffic and is very uneven with low areas Slide on upstream face of embankment; excess vegetation on both faces Cascade failed with dam no 12 below in 2008, 20 houses flooded away Cracking on the crest; Slide on the downstream face of embankment Animal burrows throughout embankment Cascade failed with dam no 11 above in 2008, 20 houses flooded away Cracking on the top of dam Excessive vegetation and trees on both downstream and upstream slopes Excessive vegetation and trees on both downstream and upstream faces Slide and traffic damage on crest, as well as much unevenness on crest Seepage through embankment on downstream face Spillway is blocked by trees Excessive vegetation and trees on both downstream and upstream faces Slide and traffic damage, erosion and seepage are evident Spillway is blocked by trees Failed in 2008, lost houses and rice fields Failed in 1963 and 1972 The crest is severely damaged by traffic, settlement/dip on the top of crest Slide on the upstream and downstream faces Spillway is blocked by trees; excessive trees also on the downstream face Failed in 1972 The top is damaged by traffic, and is uneven with some dip areas Slide on the upstream and downstream faces as well as excessive trees Spillway is too small Sinkholes and animal burrowing throughout embankment Soil erosion and excessive trees on the upstream and downstream faces Spillway is blocked and too small, very old and cracking Crest is uneven Failed in 1998 (some houses were flooded) Excess vegetation/trees growing out of embankment plus animal burrows Spillway is blocked with excessive vegetation and trees Very old and cracking outlet 6000 High Excessive trees cover the embankment of the dam The spillway was built concrete but blocked by a lot of trees 350 High Crest is uneven and with many dip areas on the top Excessive vegetation and trees on both upstream and downstream faces Slide on the upstream face; old and broken outlet 3.5 300 High The top is damaged by traffic Slide and slump on the upstream face Spillway is blocked by trees a Because many dwellings are located downstream of and in close proximity to the dam b Based on a dam inspection checklist developed from MELP (1998) and DSE (2007) Acceptable or Unacceptableb Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Elements of international benchmarks (Table 1) Elements for Minimum practice model Dam owner/manager education and guidance Registration and classification of dams Community education and preparedness Minimum practice model total score Additional elements for Best practice model Legislative purposiveness Administrative authority and empowerment Surveillance, inspection and safety reviews Dam owner/manager responsibility with information Punitive enforcement Federal/central government involvement Best practice model total score Quality of Vietnam’s dam safety assurance policy (Satisfactory = 1, Partly satisfactory = 0.5 or Unsatisfactory = per Section analysis) Partly satisfactory (0.5) Unsatisfactory (0) Unsatisfactory (0) Unsatisfactory (0.5/3) Unsatisfactory (0) Unsatisfactory (0) Satisfactory (1) Unsatisfactory (0) Partly satisfactory (0.5) Partly satisfactory (0.5) Unsatisfactory (2.5/9) .. .International small dam safety assurance policy benchmarks to avoid dam failure flood disasters in developing countries Dr John D Pisaniello Sustainable Engineering, Accounting and Law... Joanne.Tingey@unisa.edu.au September 2015 *Corresponding author International small dam safety assurance policy benchmarks to avoid dam failure flood disasters in developing countries Abstract In developing. .. Vietnam’s dam safety policy, laws and regulations against the available international benchmarks are presented in a rated format in Table According to the comparative review in Section 4, the dam safety