Tag: groundwater

DRP 021126: Honestly assessing the impacts of Pump Storage Projects
Dams, Rivers & People

DRP 021126: Honestly assessing the impacts of Pump Storage Projects

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(Feature Image: Felled trees lie piled up at the site of Torrent’s proposed pumped-storage project in Karjat. Source: Mumbai Mirror)

Amid growing opposition to the proposed 3,000 MW Saidongar-I pumped-storage hydropower project in Karjat, Maharashtra, the most important question that needs to be asked is whether we are doing honest assessment of impacts of such projects. It may be remembered that these are not even location specific projects. A pump storage project does not have to come in the middle of western ghats, needing destruction of thousands of trees. Can these be called renewable energy projects or ‘clean’ without adequately assessing their impacts on forests, water sources, wildlife and local communities.

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Yamuna Mathan 1026: Can Damming Tributaries Revive the River?
Yamuna River

Yamuna Mathan 1026: Can Damming Tributaries Revive the River?

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(Feature Image: Marking Yamuna Rivers Day on Oct. 7 to commemorate Yamuna crusader Manoj Misra’s 72nd birth anniversary, members of Nadi Mitra Mandli, school students and Home Guard personnel gather in Agra to discuss the importance of the Yamuna’s tributaries and raise awareness about their disappearance.)

The agreement to build the 236-m high Kishau dam on the Tons river raises serious concerns about the future of the Yamuna. Tons is a larger river system in upper basin and plays a vital role in sustaining Yamuna’s ecosystem. Ironically, the ₹15,000-cr project is being promoted in the name of Yamuna rejuvenation and being justified with baseless ‘rain water flowing in waste’ argument. These unconvincing and contradictory claims clearly underline the basic fallacy in the govt’s dam-building approach.

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DRP 051026: Drought: how prepared are we?
Dams, Rivers & People · Drought

DRP 051026: Drought: how prepared are we?

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(Feature Image: Weekly drought monitor map dated 23 Sept. 2026 shows drought condition in India. Credit: Vimal Misra/ Drought Monitor India )

The DRP issue this week seems to have one central theme, connecting the various parts: Deficit monsoon leading to reduced reservoir levels, increased pollution, mass fish deaths and announcements of unprecedented droughts in more than one state. Since it was known to be a super El Nino Year and even IMD had predicted (though ratgher conservatively) deficit monsoon, the ultimate deficit of 12.6% in SW Monsoon rainfall may in fact seem like bit of a relief. This was largely thanks to unexpected above average rainfall in the wettest month of SW Monsoon, July, largely due to favorable Indian Ocean Dipole.

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DRP 280926: Early Warning System important, but not a magic bullet
Dams, Rivers & People

DRP 280926: Early Warning System important, but not a magic bullet

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(Feature Image: Aerial image of the Wanlixi landslide and lake as of 30 July 2026. Credit: Forestry & Nature Conservation Agency, Taiwan, Source: EOS.Org)

While writing about the landslide dam breach in Taiwan last year leading to 24 deaths, Dave Petley remarked: As always, the focus should be on vulnerability and resilience rather than only early warning systems (EWS). This is indeed worth emphasizing, underlining, highlighting. While early warning systems can be important and must be used wherever possible, it is not a magic bullet. It is one of the many other instruments in disaster management.

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DRP 210926: Mismanagement at BBMB projects confirmed by CEA and Punjab
Dams, Rivers & People

DRP 210926: Mismanagement at BBMB projects confirmed by CEA and Punjab

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(Feature Image: The Tribune’s file photo of Pandoh dam)

The Central Electricity Authority has said in its report that there have been some serious operational and maintenance issues at BBMB’s Pandoh project, part of Beas Sutlej Link Project. In a separate development, Punjab government affidavit in the NGT has said that due to mismanagement at Bhakra-Pong dams, there has been avoidable flood disasters in Punjab in several years. Both developments confirm what we have said about role of BBMB projects in 2023 and 2025 floods in Punjab.

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DRP 140926: How prepared are we to face Himalayan Disaster Risks?
Climate Change · Dams, Rivers & People · Disasters · GLOF · Himalayas

DRP 140926: How prepared are we to face Himalayan Disaster Risks?

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(Feature Image: Washed out Teesta III dam in Sikkim. Credit: Save the Hills)

The Himalayan disaster risks are increasing in several different ways, including through new types of disasters that are being added now as is evident from the recent Rasuwa floods in Nepal-Tibet, which originated in collapse of hanging glaciers due to melting of permafrost. The frequency, intensity and spread of the risks are also going up. Considering increasing pace of global warming that is inevitable in coming decades, the disaster risks are only going to go up.

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Yamuna Manthan 0926: River Cities Failing to Protect, Sustain Water Resources
Yamuna River

Yamuna Manthan 0926: River Cities Failing to Protect, Sustain Water Resources

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(Feature Image: A tanker discharging untreated sewage in an open area near Yamuna river close to Mokshdham in Vrindavan. Source: Amar Ujala, Sept. 10, 2026)

Multiple reports over the past month again highlight serious failures in water governance in major cities in the Yamuna basin including Delhi, Gurugram, Greater Noida, Noida, Vrindavan and Bhopal. The problems range from poor rainwater harvesting and inadequate sewage networks to ineffective sewage treatment capacity, unregulated groundwater extraction and neglect of water bodies.

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DRP 070926: Protect Himalayan Region from Cascading Disasters
Dams, Rivers & People

DRP 070926: Protect Himalayan Region from Cascading Disasters

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(Feature Image: Hunge Bazar in Nuwakot, damaged by the Bhotekoshi floods. Source: Angad Dhakal/TKP)

In the wake of the Aug. 26 Nepal disaster, civil society groups in India have demanded urgent measures to protect people, mountains and rivers from increasingly complex and cascading disasters across the Himalayan region. The statement issued under the umbrella of People for Himalaya rightly appeals for high-altitude and trans-Himalayan areas to be treated as no-go zones for high-risk mega infrastructure projects, including large hydropower projects.

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DRP 310826: Nepal’s Rasuwa flood disaster: Is there a limit to Human Folly?
Dams, Rivers & People

DRP 310826: Nepal’s Rasuwa flood disaster: Is there a limit to Human Folly?

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(Feature Image: Map of Hydropower Projects and condition in Trishuli- Bhote Koshi Basin Map by SANDRP made with Google LLM)

Even as Nepal, Tibet, India and other countries whose citizens are in missing list following the Aug 26 2026 Rasuwa flood disaster for Nepal, and even as the full dimensions of the disaster are still unfolding, a Bloomberg journalist asked SANDRP a pertinent question. Seeing the major role played by operating and under construction hydropower projects in the disaster and the missing list of hundreds of people from such projects, he noted that deaths at disaster hit hydropower projects in Himalayas is a recurring story. During and after every such disaster, there is talk of learning lessons such projects, but there is little change in decision making process. His question was, is there a limit to human folly, beyond which we will see some genuine change?

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DRP 170826: Assam Floods: Engineering alone cannot help
Assam · Dams, Rivers & People · Floods

DRP 170826: Assam Floods: Engineering alone cannot help

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(Feature Image: Drone image showing flood situation in Assam. Source: TNIE/ Credit ANI, July 26, 2026)

Among many analyses of the recent Assam Floods, three contrasting ones stand out to illustrate the limitation of supremely confident perspective that engineering alone will solve the problem. One of them is by Mitul Baruah and another one is on edit page of The Times of India on Aug 17 2026. The third one by Arupjyoti Saikia is published in Indian Express. The one in TOI does not look at cultural or historical aspects of floods in Assam, nor the uniqueness of unprecedented upper Assam floods & the reasons behind it. The analysis by Mitul Baruah, in contrast, takes into account all this and in fact comes from lived experience in Majuli. Arupjyoti Saikia, an environmental historian, takes historical perspective.

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