Expert Appraisal Committee on River Valley Projects Green signals all in 2019

December 31, 2019January 1, 2020 SANDRPLeave a comment

Even as the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) on River Valley Projects (RVP) appointed by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in December 2016 completes three years with the end of 2019, it has kept up its record of green signaling everything that came its way in 2019.

There was just one exception: EAC in its meeting on January 28, 2019 rejected the proposal for EC (Env Clearance) extension for the Brutang Major Irrigation Project in Nayagarh District of Odisha, but it was essentially on procedural issue and the EAC “recommended for taking of the proposal afresh”, so it was not a full stop, but only a comma. The EAC failed to creditably appraise the EIA, the TORs, the public consultation process and decide on merit if the project was fit for approval. It approved everything that came its way, at the most occasionally asking for additional information. Never looking into the adequacy of the impact assessment or public consultation process or optimality of the project. Continue reading “Expert Appraisal Committee on River Valley Projects Green signals all in 2019” →

DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 30 Dec. 2019: Attention of Groundwater is much needed, but will ABY help?

December 30, 2019December 30, 2019 SANDRPLeave a comment

Groundwater is India’s water lifeline for some decades and will remain so. So attention to Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABY) is welcome, but key question is, will it help sustain our Water Lifeline? The World Bank funded project ABY has been in limbo for several years, but for some unknown reasons, took years to enter implementation phase. Secondly, why did it need the World Bank funding and how that will help for a scheme that essentially needs bottom up regulatory system, where the global banker has far from confidence inspiring track record?

Groundwater sustainability requires: 1. Identifying, understanding existing groundwater recharge systems 2. Protecting such recharge systems. 3. Enhance recharge from such systems. 4. Create additional recharge systems 5. Acknowledging in National Water Policy, programs and practices that Groundwater is India’s water lifeline and most importantly 6. Creating a bottom up legally empowered groundwater regulatory system.

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Sand Mining

Rajasthan River Sand Mining Overview 2019: SC Ban Remains, Police-Mafia Gang Rules

December 30, 2019August 2, 2020 SANDRP1 Comment

Seeing large scale impacts of unsustainable riverbed sand mining, the Supreme Court (SC) of India had banned sand mining activities in the state on Nov. 16, 2017. The apex court had also asked the 82 lease holders to get fresh permission of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) after submission of replenishment study.

Following this, the state government had formed a committee to look into the issue. All through 2018 the ban remained [I]. The status has not changed even as the year 2019 is ending. Meanwhile cases of illegal sand mining are continuously taking place in across the state. So are the police actions as routine process, some political statements, and few court orders. Like last year, this annual round up by SANDRP compiles, all these and other relevant developments on the issue from the state of Rajasthan.

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Cloud Burst

Cloud Bursts 2019: Jammu Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim

December 24, 2019 SANDRPLeave a comment

Cloud burst incidents are on the increase across Himalayan states. The states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have faced 23 and 16 cloud burst incidents in the south west monsoon 2019. This account compiles such reports from Jammu Kashmir (J&K) and north eastern Himalayan states.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 23 Dec 2019: Monsoons are more powerful than Wars

December 23, 2019December 24, 2019 SANDRPLeave a comment

A new study has shown how powerful the monsoons and their abnormalities are: It’s these abnormalities that ended reigns of multiple dynasties in medieval India, not wars. But the society does not seem to understand this basic reality today, and we are not only doing everything in our power to make the monsoon abnormal through human induced climate and natural world changes, but not even valuing the rainwater in our water policies, programs and practices. The changes we are bringing in natural world is making even the smaller monsoon abnormalities bring catastrophic impacts as the capacities of the people and societies to cope with the changes is decreasing. These studies are another wake up call, if only we were interested one.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 16 Dec. 2019: Why the first NGC meeting signifies Govt’s Failure on Ganga

December 16, 2019December 16, 2019 SANDRPLeave a comment

The Prime Minister finally found time to have the first ever meeting on National Ganga Council, over three years after the Ganga Notification of Oct 7, 2016. The meeting happened at Kanpur, where the NGT recently fined the state government for continuing to release untreated effluents into the Ganga. In fact NGT in recent weeks have taken several decisions that also shows how abysmally the govt has failed on Ganga front. And now after the first NGC meeting, the Prime Minister, in an effort to divert attention from Namami Gange failure, is proposing the new slogan of Arth Ganga, which basically seems to suggest focus on Money, which is Exactly what is not going to help the cause of Ganga. The Ganga is still on the lookout for the Ganga putra that promised a clean Ganga in May 2014.

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Cloud Burst

Cloud Bursts in Himachal Pradesh in Monsoon 2019

December 15, 2019December 17, 2019 SANDRPLeave a comment

Cloud burst incidents are emerging as a major threat for the Himalayan states. Of late, the extreme weather event have been causing large scale destruction in ecologically sensitive and remotely located vulnerable hilly areas. In 2018 between May 2 and July 20, the Uttarakhand state saw around 13 cloud bursts event which have increased to 23 in 2019 monsoon season resulting in wide scale damages.

This compilation for Himachal Pradesh state shows that the state is suffering even bigger destruction of infrastructure including roads, buildings, bridges and hydro projects due to increasing cloud burst events. At the same time the monitoring and mitigation efforts are totally insufficient and inadequate.

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Cloud Burst

Uttarakhand Cloud Bursts in Monsoon 2019: No Doppler Radars Six Years Since 2013 Disaster

December 11, 2019December 19, 2019 SANDRP2 Comments

With the beginning of south west monsoon season 2019, many Himalayan states started witnessing exceptional rainfall events known as Cloud Bursts. The extreme weather event – like previous years- caused large scale destruction in ecologically sensitive and remotely located vulnerable hilly areas. This account compiles the available information about such incidents in Uttarakhand in 2019 SW monsoon.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP News Bulletin 9 Dec 2019: CITIZENS REPORT ON WHAT AILS GANGA REJUVENATION

December 9, 2019December 9, 2019 SANDRPLeave a comment

The Hindustan Times editorial on Nov 27, 2019 has rightly said the following about “a recently-released Rejuvenating-Ganga River – A Citizen-Report, by the India Rivers Week, a consortium of seven NGOs”.

“A key reason for the failure of the river cleaning projects (Ganga and Yamuna action plans), says a recently-released citizen’s report, Rejuvenating Ganga,by the India Rivers Week, a consortium of seven NGOs, was their single-point focus on the main stem of the river, while the Ganga basin actually has eight major rivers (Yamuna, Son, Ramganga, Gomti, Ghaghra, Gandak, Kosi and Damodar). The majority of the funds were spent on pollution-abatement measures on the main stem of the Ganga and on the upper Yamuna basin, which constitute just 20% of the Ganga basin.”

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Climate Change · Disasters

GermanWatch Report: Can India not assess its Climate Risk & Vulnerability?

December 5, 2019December 5, 2019 SANDRP2 Comments

The Climate Risk Index Briefing Paper “GLOBAL CLIMATE RISK INDEX 2020: Who Suffers Most from Extreme Weather Events? Weather-Related Loss Events in 2018 and 1999 to 2018” released by the Environmental Think tank German Watch[i] on Dec 4, 2019[ii] made a media splash in India[iii] since the report ranked India as fifth country (it was 14^th in 2018 report) most at risk in the context of climate change.

Indeed, it is worth taking note that maximum number of deaths (2081) and Economic losses (USD 37808 million[iv], equivalent to four times country’s annual health sector budget) due to climate change happened in 2018 in India. Both these numbers were highest among the top ten Climate Risk countries of the world in 2018. This is one of the many reports which are coming out on the occasion of 25^th Conference of Parties happening in Madrid (Spain) in early December 2019. Continue reading “GermanWatch Report: Can India not assess its Climate Risk & Vulnerability?” →