Kaleshwaram Project 2025: Inquiries Done, Actions Missing

December 17, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Wide crack in Medigadda (Lakshmi) barrage of Kaleshwaram. Credit: Nagara Gopal)

The year 2025 has seen revealing information on three inquiry reports highlighting how the Kalewshwaram project have become a massive failure on all fronts be it designing or implementing the dam project or even acting on probe reports. While govt seems to reverify liability of officials indicted in V&E report, it ended up seeking CBI investigation after tabling Ghose panel report in state assembly in Aug 2025. Similarly, the NDSA report is being followed only for fixing the damages while action against the responsible govt officials and private players is clearly missing.

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Dam Safety

2024: Has NDSA made our dams any safer?

January 5, 2025January 18, 2025 SANDRP1 Comment

(Feature Image: Srisailam dam in Telangana. Source: Telangana Today)

This annual overview focusses on the functioning of National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) and related institutions in 2024 to understand if the functioning of these institutions have made Indian Dams any safer? Here functioning of Central Water Commission (CWC) is also important as CWC people head all the dam safety panels. The dam safety related institutions were formed following the passage of Dam Safety Act 2021 and hence there were promises and hopes that these institutions will make our dams safer.

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Hydro Disaster

2024: Accidents & Damages to Hydro & Dams in India

December 20, 2024January 18, 2025 SANDRPLeave a comment

The annual overview highlights the damages and accidents affecting dams and hydro power projects in India during 2024. The highest number of such incidents happened in Himachal Pradesh. Incidents are also noteworthy from Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand among the Himalayan states. In addition, noteworthy dam disaster incidents in the year happened in Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The previous overview on the issue can be seen by visiting the links 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 28×24: Hydropower Impacts on Biodiversity

October 28, 2024October 29, 2024 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: The Ranganadi dam in Arunachal Pradesh. In February 2019 the dam released an unprecedented amount of silt, with severe impacts for the river’s biodiversity and the livelihoods of people who live along its banks. Image Credit: Karen Conniff / Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0/Source: Dialogue Earth)

A new study of available scientific publications on impact of Hydropower projects on biodiversity provides a thorough review of the subject. The review does not directly give a call not to construct more such destructive projects. But it is useful for anyone concerned about the impact of dam projects on rivers.

The study discusses the impacts of hydropower projects on both aquatic and semi-aquatic species in riverine ecosystem and cumulative impacts spatially and temporally across river basins. Dams disrupt longitudinal connectivity and act as physical barriers in upstream-downstream movement of species. Upstream of dam, there is static water environment rather than flowing river environment. In the downstream, the hydropower projects adversely affect the water flow, sediment flow, thermal regimes, affecting water quality and environmental cues for the fish movement. All these also affect the floodplains both upstream and downstream.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 300924: Focus on River Studies

September 30, 2024 SANDRPLeave a comment

Rivers are the most important ecosystems (eco here includes ecology and economy) and yet possibly least studied entities. Some news below this week about some river studies brings the focus on need to take up many more river related studies.

Most important aspect of river related studies is the need for credible, independent studies, not influenced by the needs of the governments. Otherwise, the government is likely to not only influence the study, but also decide not to make it public as they did in case of the studies related to Joshimath town and role of Chamoli disaster.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 160924: Urban Flood lessons from Vadodara, Vijaywada

September 16, 2024September 16, 2024 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Vadodara: A flooded area after heavy monsoon rainfall, in Vadodara, Tuesday, Aug. 27). Photo Credit: PTI/The Hindu)

Like every monsoon, a number of cities have faced catastrophic floods in SW monsoon this year. Vadodara and Vijaywada have got the media attention more than any other city for urban floods this year. In both cases a number of factors are common: role of upstream dams, encroachment on water bodies including rivers, lakes, streams, role of illegal sand mining particularly in Vijaywada, not having learnt any lessons from past flood disasters.

It is interesting to see Andhra Pradesh CM hinting at bringing HYDRAA like enforcement institution to remove encroachments on Budameru and other water bodies. Considering the nature of his politics and track record, it is doubtful if this NDA CM will take such a bold step, but it is certainly worthy of consideration for almost all urban areas in India.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 260824: Urban flooding plan welcome, Urban Water Sector needs attention

August 26, 2024August 26, 2024 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Assam Floods: Commuters wade through a flooded road after incessant rains, in Guwahati, Friday, July 5, 2024. Image Source: PTI/ABP Live)

The Union Government plan to spend Rs 2517 Cr in 2 years in seven metro cities to mitigate floods is certainly welcome announcement. The key component of the plan, conservation and improving capacity of urban water bodies is noteworthy along with storm water drainage. Does it mean that the River Front Development projects that actually reduce the flood carrying capacity of the rivers will be closed, since one does not expect govt to be working at cross purposes in different schemes.

In fact, Urban Water Sector as a whole needs attention with National Urban Water Policy as a first step. This is because the groundwater aquifers that are fast being emptied out, can be least cost option for storing the excess rain water, serving the purpose of reducing storm water drainage load and also improving water conservation. There is huge scope for this in all the seven metros listed in the scheme as also in many other cities.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 010724: Time for independent review of Polavaram Project?

July 1, 2024July 3, 2024 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 NB 170624: Sardar Sarovar Power House to operate to reduce Dam Water level in anticipation of surplus rains: Welcome, but…

June 17, 2024June 17, 2024 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 NB 030624: Ecological challenges before the new govts in Sikkim & Arunachal

June 3, 2024June 3, 2024 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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