DRP NB 120824: Chalakudy community demand Prudent Dam Management Plan

August 12, 2024August 12, 2024 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Water flows through the gates of the Peringalkuthu dam on Chalakudy river after a sluice was opened following heavy rain in Thrissur on Aug. 04, 2022. Photo Credit: PTI/The Hindu)

One of the heartening development this week is from Kerala, where Chalakudy river community held a satyagraha to demand proper integrated dam management plan in the Chalakudy River basin to minimize flood risks. It is rather rare that communities come out for such a demand. It was also great to see that the satyagraha was supported by Chalakudy Puzha Samrakshan Samiti, Chalakudy municipal chairman and also environmentalists.

The satyagraha in fact had specific demand for each of the dams included in the Paramibikulam Aliyar Project, including in Kerala and upstream Tamil Nadu. We hope the Kerala government positively responds to these demands at the earliest.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 050824: Cities fail monsoon test

August 5, 2024August 5, 2024 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image by Cartoonist Alok/ Sakal, July 25, 2024)

This monsoon has again shown how our cities have been failing the monsoon test for decades. As rightly suggested in the Indian Express Edit this week, main reasons are: outdated drainage systems, planning that is blind to local hydrology and pathetic state of civic agencies. The last factor in fact needs to change to failed governance at all levels. There is no water or flood policy that guides our cities, nor is there any reward for improving governance, nor any penalties for lack of it.

In fact, with better rainwater management, cities can convert this problem into a blessing, both in terms of water security and also improved state of urban landscape. This would be possible if it prioritizes the city’s capacity to hold, store, recharge and drain the rainwater. Instead, the cities are busying destroying such capacities by destroying the rivers, ridges, forests, local water bodies, groundwater recharge capacities and also the drainage capacity.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 290724: Dam Floods need urgent attention

July 29, 2024 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Officials said it was very important to identify a dry area for construction of the diaphragm wall and the earth-cum-rock-fill dam on top of it, this being the main dam of the Polavaram project. DC Image)

The floods last week in Pune, with significant contribution from dam releases from upstream has led to Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar directing the water resources department to keep the Khadkwasla Dam only half full to avoid repeat of the floods. While this is welcome and needs to be implemented, it also raises a number of questions.

The phenomena of water releases from dams contributing to downstream floods is not new, it has been going on for decades as SANDRP has been pointing out. Even in 2023 monsoon, several dams were found guilty of this including Sardar Sarovar on Narmada in Gujarat and Bhakra & Pong dams in Punjab (this was highlighted at a meeting in Chandigarh on Saturday by SANDRP and others), among others. In 2019 floods in Maharashtra and Karnataka too this happened in Krishna basin. So, the minister’s statement post disaster is surprising.

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DRP News Bulletin

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

July 22, 2024July 22, 2024 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 NB 150724: Celebrating Monsoons

July 15, 2024 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 NB 080724: Why IMD & CWC are unable to improve forecasts, reporting & help improve flood management?

July 8, 2024July 8, 2024 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Flood-affected people move to a safer place on a boat in Nalbari district on Friday, July 5, 2024. Image Credit: PTI/Source HT)

We are in the thick of monsoon and also flood season. To manage floods, key inputs are accurate forecasts and prompt, accurate, location, river specific rainfall. India Meteorological department has a key role to play in all these aspects that can help us manage floods, as a very pointed Editorial in Indian Express stated in the context of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s flip flops.

The edit referred to the 2021 parliamentary panel report that asked the Centre to set up modern weather stations in the upstream catchment of the Northeast’s rivers and install sirens to alert people downstream of floods. North East and rest of the country continues to lack such systems.

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

May 20, 2024 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 NB 060524: Study on dam induced river flooding in Peninsular India

May 6, 2024May 7, 2024 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: (a) Locations of streamflow gauges with catchment boundaries in six major river basins of Peninsular India, (b) elevation map and mean annual maximum runoff rate (streamflow per unit catchment area), (c) Aridity Index (AI) and (d) Baseflow Index (BFI). The maps in first row are prepared in QGIS (Version 2.14.0 ‘Essen’ (2016), URL: http://qgis.org) and the maps in second row are generated using R (Version 4.2.2 (2022), URL: https://www.R-project.org/). Source: Baseflow significantly contributes to river floods in Peninsular India )

A recently published study, see details given below throws light on the role of groundwater contribution to baseflow in rivers and their flooding in Peninsular India’s river like Narmada, Tapi, Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery. The found that while baseflow contributes more to river flows, its share in the flood event flow magnitude decreases as surface runoff accounts for a larger proportion of flood discharge on the day of the flood.

Most significant are the findings related to dam induced flood that SANDRP has been writing for long and the finding corroborate exactly what SANDRP has been saying: Sudden releases of water from a dam can raise river levels during extreme rainfall events, especially when the dam is nearly full. The impact of sudden floods is more destructive because people living in nearby areas are often unprepared. Without a dam, floodwaters rise slowly over time, allowing people to take preventive measures. However, sudden floods caused by dam releases offer little or no time to prepare, increasing the risks associated with dam-induced flood hazards. Furthermore, the construction of dams alters the natural regime of rivers, leading to changes in sediment transport and erosion patterns. These changes can heighten the risk of flooding downstream from a dam.

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