A report this week quotes a Govt of Gujarat (GOG) insider saying that GOG is giving 16.7% of SSP (Sardar Sarovar Project) water for industries (with more in pipeline) against planned allocation of just 2% (0.2 Million Acre Feet or MAF). Similarly, against planned allocation of zero for Urban areas in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Kheda and Bharuch, most large urban areas are getting Narmada water. However, the insider says, the area irrigated by the SSP is only 33% of the targeted area, with largest water quantities going to already irrigated central Gujarat. Similarly, with the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) asked Gujarat to provide water for the SSP Downstream areas from its allocated share, but Gujarat keeps claiming it has no water for this and asks other states to provide water for the downstream areas from common pool. It seems the worst fears of the project critiques are coming true. The insider has in fact characterized this state of affairs as water anarchy in Gujarat.
Continue reading “DRP 030225: Water Anarchy in Gujarat in Narmada water allocation?”Tag: Flood
Groundwater 2024: Increasing Impacts of Climate Change
Several studies and reports published during 2024 have underlined the rising adverse impacts of changing climate on groundwater resources in India and globally in multiple ways which will continue to accelerate in future. While the groundwater greatly contributes to river baseflows during lean period, its role in flooding is miniscule comparatively with surface flows in Peninsular India. In North India the drying northwest monsoon and warmer winters have been found driving groundwater depletion by raising demand for irrigation water.
The groundwater is getting warmer, also impacting subterranean aquatic ecosystems. Besides, the rising temperatures are causing more evaporation losses and leading to pumping of more groundwater to compensate for the losses. The extreme rainfall events might speed up fertilizers seeping into groundwater table contaminating it. Similarly, the rising sea level is found fueling erosion in coastal areas and facilitating seawater intrusion of the coastal aquifers. At the same time the decline in low and medium intensity rainfall and warmer weather patterns are reducing groundwater recharge, increasing seawater ingress.
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DRP 270125: India’s non-functional Sewage Treatment Plants
(Feature Image: 10 MLD Kundli CETP in Sonipat. BS Rawat/SANDRP/May 2023)
A detailed report in this week’s DRP News Bulletin below shows how India’s Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), Govt’s main weapon against pollution of rivers in Urban areas, have been a failure for decades. It is pertinent to note that this is the golden jubilee year of Water Pollution Control Act of 1974, that led to the formation of Central, state Pollution Control Boards, and the whole water pollution control bureaucracy, institutions and legal architecture. There should be little doubt that whole architecture has abysmally failed in achieving basic objective for which it was created, including ensuring proper treatment of urban sewage.
India has spent thousands of crores of rupees on these STPs, mostly, mega, centralized projects. But there has been little effort to address governance of the STPs, to ensure that they function as required and provide the results that they have been set up for. Whether they function or not, qualitatively or quantitatively, year after year and decades after decades, there are no consequences! In fact, if treated properly, sewage can become a asset rather than nuisance that it now is. The Judiciary too, right up to the apex court, have badly failed in achieving any improvement in this eminently justiciable issue.
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2024 Dam Safety
(Feature Image: Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner M. Sivaguru Prabakaran inspecting the Siruvani dam on January 8, 2025. Photo, Text Source: The Hindu)
This annual overview complies the remaining relevant reports from 2024 concerning safety of dam structures in India. As per a report, the incident of damage to Tungabhadra dam gate in August 2024, raised alarm for other aging dams in Karnataka. In fact, the Bhadra dam also witnessed jamming of a gate due to rust in June 2024. Similarly, the Kabini reservoir has been dealing with a leakage for the past three years. The report further highlights negligence in dams’ monitoring and inadequate expertise and corruption often impacting the quality of maintenance works of dams in the state. As per another report taking sou moto action, the Karnataka High Court in January 2024, banned mining and blasting activities within a 20 km radius of the Krishna Raja Sagara dam in the state.
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DRP 200125: Whither Env Clearance Rejection rate from Expert Appraisal Committee or MoEF?
A detailed review of functioning of Union Ministry of Environment and Forests’ (MoEF) Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) on River Valley Projects (RVP) for 2024 by SANDRP shows that the committee or for that matter MoEF has almost non-existent rejection rate. Even when a project is not cleared, when it applies again, it gets clearance, whether the application if for stage I (Terms of Reference) or Stage II (Environment Clearance- EC) clearance. Even in some cases like Pump Storage Projects (PSP) in Western Ghats or the Hydropower projects in disaster prone Himalayas, including the disaster-stricken projects like the 1200 MW Teesta III projects in Sikkim, the scrutiny including field visits by the EAC Sub committees is minimal, not worthy calling even scrutiny.
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2024: Siltation, Safety & Sustainability of Hydro, Dams in India
(Feature Image: Pune: Pavana, Mulshi, Panshet, and Khadakwasla Dams Release Water Due to Heavy Rain in Catchment Areas. Source: Pune Now News, Sept 2024)
This annual overview focusses on how siltation, muck dumping related issues are affecting the safety and sustainability of Hydropower projects and dams in India. Some of the key dams facing crisis in this regard include Bhakra, Ratle, Gangasagar, Hathnur among others. Some of the states where this issue is acute include HP, J&K, Maharashtra, Telangana, Kerala, Karnataka & Punjab.
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DRP 130125: Will Judiciary take these matters to logical conclusion?
There are at least four cases in this past week where the judiciary has used strong words or taken up crucial issues in water, dams, hydropower projects, wetlands and riverbed mining related issues. In the case related to the safety of Mullaperiyar dam on Kerala-TN border, the Supreme Court has prodded the Centre to wake up from the slumber to ensure that National Dam Safety Authority quickly forms a panel to examine the project. This case has wide ranging repercussions not only about this project, but also functioning of NDSA and other bodies under the Dam Safety Act 2021. Indeed, there is huge question mark as to what extent NDSA and DSA has made our dams any safer.
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Rivers Flowing in Extreme Flood Situation during Northeast Monsoon 2024
In addition to rivers flowing in extreme flood situations at 64 flooding monitoring stations during Southwest Monsoon 2024, we have found that rivers have crossed highest flood level (HFL) at four stations during just concluded Northeast Monsoon season. Of these four stations, three are in Tamil Nadu state and one is in Union Territory of Puducherry.
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2024: Mining Dam Breach Flood Incidents in India
(Feature Image: -Vedanta’s red mud pond collapse on Sept. 15, 2024 inundates farmlands in Kalahandi. Photo: OTV)
Besides the dam induced flood events, the available media reports show two incidents of breach in industrial dams causing substantial flood damages to local people in India during 2024. The first incident took place in NMDC’s iron ore mine in Kirandul area of Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh in July 2024 in which collapse of an iron ore waste ‘check dam’ resulted in extensive flood damages in downstream areas.
The second such incident happened in September 2024 when aluminium mine waste dyke breached in Vedanta Alumina Lanjigarh facility in Kalahandi district of Odisha flooding scores of farmlands with toxic mud. Interestingly both the NMDC and Vedanta have blamed extreme rains reason behind the breach in their mine waste collection facilities while the reports indicate negligence in maintenance of these dams.
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2024: Climate Change, GLOF impact on Safety of Hydro, Dams in India
(Powerhouse of a hydro project ravaged by cloudburst induced flashflood in Sutlej basin Shimla, Himachal Pradesh in Aug 2024. Image Source: Social Media)
This 2024 annual overview focusses on important reports highlighting the safety and sustainability issues of the hydro and dam projects in India in 2024 in the context of Climate Change, including Glacier melt and GLOFs. The compilation shows that the climate change driven extreme weather events have become significant threat for the structural safety of these projects.
This is even more relevant in inherently vulnerable areas like the Himalayas and Western Ghats from the point of view of seismic activity, young erosion prone mountain, flash floods, avalanches and landslides. Here the impact of climate change effects like more intensified hydrological cycles, cloud bursts, reduction in snow fall, glacier melts and GLOF (Glacier Lake Outburst Flood) increase the vulnerability including landslide dams and avalanche dams.
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