Climate Change Poses Major Challenge to Global Dam Safety: Devendra Kumar Sharma
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Guadalajara (Mexico), May 26
Devendra Kumar Sharma, President of the International Commission on Large Dams, addressed the inaugural session of the International Symposium on “Water, Energy, and Society: The Evolving Role of Dams in a Changing World” during the 94th Annual General Meeting of ICOLD in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The inaugural session was also attended by Pablo Lemus Navarro, Governor of Jalisco, Mexico. Around 1,000 professionals from 70 countries are participating in the international symposium.
Sharma, who is also a Member of the National Security Advisory Board, Government of India, and former Chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission, said the global dam community is facing unprecedented challenges due to the accelerating impacts of climate change.
Highlighting the importance of ICOLD’s mission, he said the organisation remains committed to ensuring the safety, rehabilitation and modernization of dams across the world. “The role of dam engineering professionals is more critical than ever. We must embrace these challenges as a mandate to innovate and engineer a sustainable future,” he said.
Founded in 1928 and headquartered in Paris, France, ICOLD currently has 101 member countries, including India, which joined the commission in 1930. Sharma noted that the organisation is working to promote best practices in rehabilitation, maintenance, environmental stewardship and structural integrity for over 64,000 large dams globally.
He stressed the need to ensure that dams remain efficient, safe and environmentally sustainable, particularly in the face of climate-related uncertainties affecting water and energy security worldwide.Raising concern over limited participation from developing countries, Sharma announced that ICOLD has constituted a committee of international experts to suggest strategic measures for broader global engagement.
In a major announcement, he said that from September 1, 2026, ICOLD members worldwide will be able to access the organisation’s technical literature free of cost. He said the decision was taken keeping in view the difficulty faced by engineers from developing countries in purchasing costly technical publications in foreign currency.Sharma expressed confidence that free access to ICOLD literature would significantly strengthen dam safety and support global efforts towards water, food and energy security.
