The Japan Water Agency (JWA) visited India during October 18-22, 2016 as part of the just-in-time consulting service to develop an Earthquake Emergency Response Manual. The visit was conducted as part of the World Bank’s Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) with technical assistance from the World Bank Disaster Risk Management Hub, Tokyo’s Country Program’s "Improving Service Delivery of DRM in India".

JWA officials conducted an Earthquake Response Drill at Ichari Dam, a hydropower plant in Uttarakhand, during their visit. There were approximately 20 participants including site engineers, officials from Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam (Hydropower Corporation Limited UJVNL), and CWC. The drill was observed by 30 DRIP task team members including the World Bnak’s Delhi office and Central Water Commission (CWC). The visit facilitated knowledge exchange on seismic emergency preparedness and response for dam safety management. Site visit by the JWA officials provided a platform for the first-hand knowledge exchange from the Japanese experts, applicable to the Indian context.

Concluding the visit, a workshop for the Uttarakhand dam engineers was conducted on October 20, on disaster preparedness of the dams in the region. During the workshop, JWA shared Japanese experience of earthquake emergency response and the feedback obtained from the participants of the Drill. A meeting with CWC Chairman was held on the following day to discuss the outcome of the visit and next steps.

The World Bank’s DRIP and the Country Program will continue to support collaboration between CWC and JWA, on dam safety management especially on early warning system and seismic event response system through knowledge exchanges and development and dissemination of an Earthquake Emergency Response Manual to 250 dams in India.