DRP 220724: Why are Under construction hydro and dam projects excluded from dam safety regime?

July 22, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Flash flood ravaged HCC’s batching plant along Alaknanda river at under construction Vishnugad Pipalkoti HEP site in Chamoli district. Image source: Social Media)

As we saw in stories in last week (e.g., Luhri HEP in Himachal Pradesh) and see this week (Vishnugad Pipalkoti in Uttarakhand and Dibang HEP in Arunachal Pradesh), a number of under construction projects regularly face disaster, which includes deaths and destruction on large scale. We have been narrating stories related to disaster at such projects regularly in the past too.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 150724: Celebrating Monsoons

July 15, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: People visit the seaside as dark clouds hover over the city, in Mumbai, Monday June 03. Image Credit: PTI/ Source: TNIE)

It is rather rare when we find anything in media about celebrating our monsoons. We find this week more than one piece about such celebration in various ways including through creating works like Bollywood songs and poetry in various languages of India.

In a detailed article famous Bollywood related author Jerry Pinto writes about the fascinating Bollywood songs related to monsoon and their picturization. He writes that the great tradition seems to be fading out, but hopefully that will not be the case. Incidentally the article should have mentioned the name of one of the best lyricist, author and film maker, Gulzar, who has shown more love for monsoon that possibly anyone else in Bollywood.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 010724: Time for independent review of Polavaram Project?

July 1, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Work going on Polavaram Project at Polavaram in West Godavari. DC Image: Narayana Rao, Dec. 2020)

The sequence of events over the last two decades that ended this week with white paper on Polavaram project being released by the newly elected Andhra Pradesh govt underlines urgent need for an independent assessment of the multi-state Polavaram Project on Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh.

The story of the project similar to, though a bit longer than that of the ill-fated Kaleshwaram Project of the neighbor Telugu speaking state of Telangana. Both are ill-conceived, expensive, high impact projects on same Godavari River, both taken forward without sufficient studies and implemented without sufficient checks and balances.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 170624: Sardar Sarovar Power House to operate to reduce Dam Water level in anticipation of surplus rains: Welcome, but…

June 17, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Sardar Sarovar Dam. Image Source: The Economic Times, Sept. 2022)

The news this week that SSNNL has decided to operate the 1200 MW River Bed Power House and the 250 MW Canal Head Power house to reduce the water level in Dam from 122.28 meters on June 14 to around 115 m before the monsoon inflows start, in anticipation of the above average rainfall anticipated during SW Monsoon 2024 is welcome. One hopes this is sign of SSNNL, Gujarat Government and the Narmada Control Authority have learnt some lessons after the avoidable flood disasters brought by SSP in 2023 and earlier in 2019 and 2020, as revealed by SANDRP’s analysis in each of these years.

One hopes this is not just one-off ad-hoc decisions, but part of a systemic change. This will require an integrated basin level reservoir operation policy including all the major dams of the Narmada Valley and put it out in public domain along with clearly defined Standard Operating Procedure, and names of the responsible officials for each of such major dam in the basin. The Central Water Commission will also need to be held accountable for its flood forecasting including the 7-day advance forecasts.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 030624: Ecological challenges before the new govts in Sikkim & Arunachal

June 3, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Anti dam graffiti on the wall of the civil secretariat building in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh in July 2022. Source: Social Media)

As the Hindustan Times Editorial today (June 3, 2024) has rightly underlined, a major challenge before the newly elected state governments in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh is to urgently review the existing, under construction and planned mega hydropower projects in the fragile Himalayan ecology in these border states.

These states are inherently vulnerable to large kinds of disasters including landslides, earthquakes, erosion, floods, GLOFs and also multi hazard disasters. These inherent vulnerabilities are already hugely increased under climate crisis. The large hydropower projects being taken up here are acting as force multipliers for disasters in these states as recent experience including the Oct 2023 events in both states have shown.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 200524: After Ten years of Namami Gange and Rs 40 000 Cr expenditure Ganga remains dirty

May 20, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRP1 Comment

(Feature Image: Untreated effluents being discharged in Gang river through ‘Chor’ nullah in Kanpur on May 19, 2024. Image Source: Sceenshot of ABC News Media report)

The reports this week from Ganga basin rivers clearly show that after ten years of Namami Gange and NMCG (National Mission for Clean Ganga) efforts and expenditure of over Rs 40 000 Cr, there is no improvement in even river pollution, leave aside the state of river flows or state of the rivers in the Ganga basin.

In fact, there is nothing to show that even the new STPs are making any difference to the river even with respect to the limited objective of sewage treatment. As highlighted in the report below, until and unless the governance of STPs become more transparent, accountable and participatory, there is no hope for change, no matter how much money is spent, how much new STP capacity is added or what technology is used. Only a responsive, confidence inspiring governance can make a difference. But there is no interest in working in that direction from the government.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 130524: Unreliable Hydropower poses new challenges for India

May 13, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: NHPC’s under construction 2000 Mw Subansiri Lower Hydro Power Project. Source: PIB, June 2023)

As per this Reuters report based on official information and statements, in June 2024 India will face the biggest peak hour power shortfall in 14 years, mainly due to the slump in hydropower generation. This is the result of not only pushing hydropower projects over the decades, but also not taking any steps to optimize peaking power generation from existing hydro or doing anything worthwhile to manage peak load. India’s hydropower generation had steepest fall in four decades in the year ending on March 31 2024, which was another reason not on rely on unreliable hydropower projects. The regular and frequent disasters that we see connected with hydropower projects in almost every month and more frequently in monsoons should be another reason in this regard.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 150424: Supreme Court’s order on right to be free from climate change impact is welcome, BUT…

April 15, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Polluted Hindon river flowing through Ghaziabad in March 2024. Bhim Singh Rawat/SANDRP)

On March 21, 2024, a case related to the Grean Indian Bustard, a critically endangered bird – numbering less than 150 individuals – has led the Supreme Court of India to expand citizens’ constitutional right to life and equality to include the right to be free from the adverse impact of climate change. The PIL filed by M.K. Ranjitsinh asked to protect the GIB from extinction. In 2021, in this PIL, the Supreme Court had passed directions restricting and regulating power lines and renewable energy projects in an area of 99,000 sq km in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The Supreme Court’s latest order modified directions passed in the earlier judgment. Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud – writing for the 3-judge bench including Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra – has expanded the contours of environmental jurisprudence: from the oft-repeated polluter pay principle–precautionary principle–public trust doctrine to the larger arena of climate justice, environmental inequity and gender justice. However, in the process, the protection the SC gave through earlier order has been withdrawn.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 080424: Demand to include River protection measures in election manifestoes

April 8, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Ganga river at Garhmukteshwar in March 2024. Bhim Singh Rawat/SANDRP)

The demand of NAPM to political parties going to the National elections in next couple of months to include protection of rivers and communities dependent on rivers in their manifestoes is most appropriate and urgently required.

Some key components of the demand include strengthening of decentralized river governance, role in decision making related to rivers for the fisherfolks, boats people and other river dependent communities. A draft of the People’s River Protection Bill has also been sent to the political parties. The NAPM also opposed indiscriminate construction of dams, hydro projects, embankments, barrages, river front developments, illegal sand mining, dumping of solid and liquid waste in the rivers and also interlinking of projects, all being done in the name of development, with least concern for the rivers. The draft bill also demands removal of unjust encroachments into riverbeds and floodplains. NAPM also demands continued flow in the perennial rivers by way of adequate environment flows throughout the length of the rivers from origin to its confluence with other rivers or sea.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 010424: As Krishna basin faces drought and scarcity, water diverted from the basin to Konkan

April 1, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature image: Map of Bhivpuri Hydropower Project, one of the Tata Dams)

Large parts of South India, including Maharashtra are facing depleted reservoir levels with the beginning of summer and water scarcity. However, the Krishna Bheema basin, the second largest basin of peninsular India, is diverting water to outside the basin to Konkan. The Krishna Bheema basin has the largest live storages of Maharashtra in Koyna dam (1347.5 MCM) and Tata dams (617.67 MCM), but the water in those storages won’t be available to the drought hit residents of Krishna basin in water scarce Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

This is because Koyna and Tata dams divert the water from Krishna Bheema basins to Konkan for power generation. Even in March, according to Maharashtra Load Dispatch Centre, Koyna had generated 128.87 Million Units (MU) of power and Tata Dams had generated 130.47 MU, both by March 30. This implies diversion of millions of Cubic meters of water from Koyna and Tata Dams during March 2024, which mostly gone down from Konkan to Arabian sea.

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