India has over 5,200 large dams, and a significant portion are showing the signs of age: many are 50-100 years old; some over 100 years. Experts warn these dams face deteriorating conditions due to high sedimentation, design flaws, outdated spillway capacity, and increasing pressures from climate change.

Sediments are filling up reservoirs faster than anticipated. For example, some dams like Bhakra, Hirakud have lost large portions of their original storage capacity, affecting water supply for irrigation, hydropower, and drinking water. Aging dams also bring safety risks: dams in seismically active zones (like Mullaperiyar), with previously flagged structural flaws, pose serious threat to downstream populations.

Another issue is that many dams were designed based on rainfall, flood, and climate data that are now outdated. Increasingly severe storms, shifting monsoon patterns and greater flood risk can overwhelm older dams’ flood control structures.

Policy responses are underway: the Dam Safety Act 2021, periodic inspections, emergency action plans, and a push to rehabilitate or upgrade dams via Dam Rehabilitation & Improvement Projects (DRIP) are meant to address some risks.

Ultimately, India’s dams are still hugely important for water storage, energy, agriculture, and flood control but ageing has turned them into ticking time bombs without proactive maintenance, clearer governance, investment in safety, and climate-resilient redesign.