Rivers Breaching Highest Flood Levels in July 2023

August 3, 2023September 1, 2024 SANDRPLeave a comment

( Feature Image: CWC’s water level gauge set up along Yamuna river at Old Railway Bridge, Delhi. 28 June 2023/ SANDRP)

The analysis of hydrographs being published on Center Water Commission’s (CWC) Flood Forecasting website shows that the previous Highest Flood Levels (HFL) have been breached at least at 34 flood monitoring sites across the country in July 2023. The river basin wise details of all these sites are given in tables below.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 030723: Peak Hour Tariffs to be implemented from April 2024

July 3, 2023February 27, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Vyasi HEP power station at Hathyari, Dehradun. SANDRP, June 2023)

This announcement by the government is indeed much belated but welcome step that India plans to increase peak hour power tariff compared to non-peak hour power tariff, beginning with commercial and industrial consumers from April 2024 a year later for others excluding agriculture consumers. The notification mentions it as daytime tariff (during solar hours) and night time power use, but this essentially also helps peak management.

This will not only put a premium on peak hour power consumption and hence generation, but also hopefully ensure that assessment of impacts of the peak hour power generation including at hydropower projects is done and done in a credible way, along with compensating those affected. It will also hopefully ensure that existing hydro capacity is used optimally for peak hour power generation before going for new hydro projects in the name of increasing peak our power generation.

One also hopes that it will lead to better peak hour power management and also considering all the options for such power generation rather than pushing hydro projects blindly in the name of peak hour power generation.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 120623: Tip of Karnataka irrigation scam?

June 12, 2023February 27, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: A decade old Amul caricature on Rs. 70, 000 crore irrigation scam in Maharashtra.)

It’s not very frequent that irrigation scams come to light. Somewhat inadvertently, the Karnataka irrigation scam seems to be getting exposed when the newly elected state government stopped two irrigation projects in the constituency of the irrigation minister of the previous state government, the Gatti Basavanna Dam and the Ammajeshwari Lift Irrigation Project. In both cases, the department officials are saying that they prepared the project reports based on instructions from above. In both cases, the costs proposed at one stage were 3 to 9 times higher than the revised estimated cost.

One only hopes that the government, media and the judiciary will go to the bottom of these revelations and bring to light the full dimensions of what seems like a tip of the Karnataka Irrigation Scam. It is public knowledge that Karnataka has been spending tens of thousands of crores each of the last few years in the name of big irrigation or dam projects, without commensurate benefits.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 170423:Forecast of Indian SW Monsoon & definition of normal monsoon

April 17, 2023February 27, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has on April 11, 2023 forecast that rainfall at national level in four months of June-Sept 2023 Southwest Monsoon will be 96% of Long Period Average (LPA). IMD considers Indian Monsoon rainfall as normal based on just one parameter of total rainfall in these four months at national level is between 96% and 104% of LPA, with model error of +/- 5%. This raises large number of questions as media has rightly raised post the IMD announcement.

Firstly, in a strange turn of events, on April 12, an update jointly by US weather agencies under the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), contradicted a number of assumptions of IMD the previous day, including the period when El Nino will become active and probability of it being a strong event, both of which have a strong bearing on the Indian Monsoon in an adverse way. So the first question that arises is, did the IMD not have the benefit of the observations on April 11 based on which NOAA made the forecast very next day? Or was it an attempt at providing an unjustified feel good monsoon forecast? This question arises as in the past too questions have been raised about such attempts by IMD. This question also becomes important as only a day or two before IMD’s forecast, private forecaster had predicted that monsoon rainfall is likely to be deficient and not normal.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 030423: IRENA confirms bleak future of Large Hydro globally

April 3, 2023February 27, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Graph showing annual growth in hydro power capacity in MW. Source: Rivers Without Boundaries, April 01, 2023)

The annual Renewable Statistics 2023 report from IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency) says that globally, only 1.6% was added to the hydropower capacity in 2022, that too two thirds in non-democratic China. The capacity added in rest of the world outside China in 2022 was 7.3 GW, lowest figure in last 15 years. Similarly 99% of additional capacity added in pump storage projects in 2022 was in China. The report from IRENA also says that 97% of hydropower finance comes from public or government sources and private sector seems to have little enthusiasm for this sector. The projections for future painted in the report is no better. This is broadly in line with our lead story in DRP News Bulletin last week (dated March 27 2023) painting bleak future of large hydropower projects.

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Cumulative Impact Assessment · Dams · Environment Impact Assessment · Interlinking of RIvers · Ministry of Environment and Forests · Ministry of Water Resources · NWDA

Poster child for Interlinking follies: Damanganga-Vaitarna-Godavari project

March 9, 2023March 13, 2023 SANDRPLeave a comment

Pictures above have been taken five days apart. One would think River Interlinking entails transferring water from the bountiful right to thirsty left. In case of Damanganga-Vaitarna-Godavari Link, it means the opposite: transferring water from dry Mokhada to the verdant Devnadi in Sinnar. Like many ILR projects, it highlights the farce that is “surplus” and “deficit” basins. More rainfall does not secure water access, nor does moderate rainfall negate it.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 060223: Wetlands in India face damages, threats and Govt Apathy

February 6, 2023February 27, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image:-Nayapakkam a lake near Chennai and a bird hotspot. 190 species have been recorded here and is a refuge for migratory harriers. https://ebird.org/hotspot/L3396760 Excavators were filling one end of the lake yesterday. Allegedly the ACS group is building an International school over it. M Yuvan, 05 Feb. 2023)

On the occasion of World Wetlands Day 2023 on Feb 2, 2023, SANDRP brought out five overviews about state of India’s wetlands. These included overview related to: 1. India’s Ramsar Wetlands 2. General overview of India’s wetlands 3. Top Ten stories about govt actions about wetlands 4. Top ten stories about judiciary actions about wetlands and 5. Positive stories about India’s wetlands. The links to the five overviews are available below.

The first thing that strikes from these overviews is that state of wetlands in India is bad, getting worse, they continue to face systemic neglect, damages, threats and govt apathy including Ramsar wetlands, which are supposed to have better protection than other wetlands, which is unfortunately not true. The nameplate of Ramsar wetland has now been given to 75 wetlands, but that provides no additional protection to them. in the name of information of Ramsar sites, there is only a combined interactive map apart from two separate pdf file links with location map and state wise listing Ramsar wetlands on Wetlands of India portal by MoEF&CC. The govt has neither prepared any concrete plan to address the threats nor has it developed credible monitoring mechanism which clearly shows it has no intention to improve the governance of these sites.

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Sand Mining

2022 Riverbed Mining: 5 Bridges Collapsed, 22 Threatened

January 25, 2023March 3, 2023 SANDRPLeave a comment

The indiscriminate, mechanized riverbed mining activities are not only impacting the river eco-systems and dependent communities in multiple adverse ways, but are also damaging the river based infrastructures including road bridges, railway bridges, embankments, irrigation channels and potable water supply schemes for past many years. We have put together reports on infrastructural damages and threats due to excessive riverbed mining in India in 2022. Our 2021, 2018 reports on this topic can be seen by clicking the links.

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Sand Mining

2022: Riverbed Mining Destroying Indian River Eco-system & Freshwater Species

January 20, 2023January 20, 2023 SANDRP2 Comments

(Feature image sources: Clock wise (1) Mahseer fish/ Mongabay India, April 2022. (2) Gharials in Chambal/India Today, July 2022. (3) Gangetic dolphin/ECO NE. (4) Smooth-coated Otters in Cauvery/Round Glass, Jan. 2023.)

Indiscriminate mining of riverbeds for sand, gravel, pebbles have been rampant across the country increasingly damaging India’s rivers. The incidents of illegal sand mining, mafias, administrative actions & inactions, govt policies and court cases are routinely covered by the media. However the irreversible impacts of destructive riverbed mining operations on fresh water species and river eco-system are little understood, least explored, rarely covered by media and fails to attract the required attention from govts, judiciary and public at large.

To some extent, we have been monitoring and highlighting the loop holes in sand mining governance. As part of our annual overview, in 2022 we have complied this separate report underlining the adverse impacts of riverbed mining on rivers and on aquatic life, fresh water species including endangered gharials, dolphins, turtles, fish etc.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 090123: Atal Bhujal Yojana just chaff without any wheat?

January 9, 2023February 27, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

According to this detailed report, possibly the first independent review of the Atal Bhujal Yojana, a 5-year program of the Union govt for management of groundwater, India’s water lifeline, with over half of the project period completed, seems bereft of the fundamental aspects that the scheme itself says are necessary for any sound foundation of the scheme. The review describes it as a dish full of chaff, without almost any kernels of wheat for some sound reasons. It says hardly 18% of allocated money has been spent on Gram Panchayat level community-led Water Security Plan. Only 4% of the planned Gram Panchayat level trainings have been held, with Gujarat and Haryana holding none. Only 27% of money allocated for Gram Panchayat level Hydrogeological monitoring network has been spent. The data gathering instruments that were required from the beginning of the program have not been installed in over half the planned locations. On Information, Education and Communication activities, only 16% of allocated amount is spent.

More detailed independent review of the program implementation will help, but from the available information so far, the signs do not look particularly promising. Is it due to ineptness or lack of intention? Only time will tell.

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