Tag: Policy

DRP 290724: Dam Floods need urgent attention
DRP News Bulletin

DRP 290724: Dam Floods need urgent attention

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(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 080724: Why IMD & CWC are unable to improve forecasts, reporting & help improve flood management?
DRP News Bulletin

DRP 080724: Why IMD & CWC are unable to improve forecasts, reporting & help improve flood management?

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(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 240624: India to help Bangladesh conserve Teesta River
DRP News Bulletin

DRP 240624: India to help Bangladesh conserve Teesta River

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The news this week that India and Bangladesh have agreed for India to help Bangladesh conserve the Teesta River that flows from India to Bangladesh. We hope this development is taken to its logical conclusion soon in terms of implementation of the project as soon as possible. This has the potential to not only two nations working together on conservation and rejuvenation of the Teesta River, but also possibly other 53 shared rivers. However, it would have been better if the W Bengal government would have been briefed, taken into confidence and involved in the discussions. History tells us that the cooperation efforts do not succeed without the involvement of all the stakeholders.

The formation of Joint Technical Committee to initiate discussions for the renewal of the Ganges Water Sharing treaty 1996 that will expire in 2026. One hopes that all these happen with a benevolent disposition from India as this has the potential of creating a much stronger bond between the two countries. A good example is the 1996 Ganga treaty that was also signed with a benevolent disposition. This move can also help strengthen the relations across South Asia as both Nepal and Bhutan are hoping to export hydro-electricity to Bangladesh via India.

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

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

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

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(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 060524: Study on dam induced river flooding in Peninsular India
DRP News Bulletin

DRP 060524: Study on dam induced river flooding in Peninsular India

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(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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DRP 290424: Why is Climate Change not major election issue?
DRP News Bulletin

DRP 290424: Why is Climate Change not major election issue?

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(Feature Image: Vehicles stuck in debris following a recent cloudburst at Saat Meel in Mandi, on August 20, 2023. (PTI Photo/Money Control)

World’s largest democratic exercise is now ongoing in India to elect the members of India’s Lok Sabha. Over 97 crores are eligible to vote in these elections. One of the biggest factors that is adversely affecting people across India currently is Climate Change. It is affecting almost every aspect of life and the adverse impacts are only increasing with every passing year. This is man-made disaster basically happening due to anthropogenic reasons, affecting air, water, climate, food, health, livelihoods, disasters and so on, affecting everyone. Currently, India is also a major contributor to the climate change causing green-house gas emissions, even though historically, the developed countries have contributed much more.

More importantly, the development options that the elected government choose will decide how the people will be impacted by climate change. The government has large number of options for pathways to development. Considering all this, one expected that climate change responses will be a major issue in these elections. But that is clearly not the case. BJP and Congress, two of the biggest parties fighting the elections, have mentioned climate change in their manifestos, but neither has dealt with this important issue with the detail and seriousness required. Nor are any of them making climate change a major election issue. One expects the ruling party to at least respond in greater detail and seriousness to this issue, but that is not the case.

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DRP 220424: International Energy Agency accepts high-cost high risk hydro is no longer High Priority
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DRP 220424: International Energy Agency accepts high-cost high risk hydro is no longer High Priority

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The International Energy Agency (IEA) has accepted in its latest World Energy Investment Special Report titled “Reducing the Cost of Capital: Strategies to unlock clean energy investment in emerging and developing economies” has candidly accepted that hydropower (excluding pump storage) is no longer the high-priority sector.

Among the challenges hydropower faces, according to IEA, include long permitting time necessary considering the high and complex impacts of hydropower projects amd delays during construction. IEA figures show that the capacity of Chinese developed hydropower projects that had high proportion of installed hydropower capacity globally in any year for decades, was the lowest in 2023 since 2014. The report accepts that high cost of capital with high interest rates can have a major impact on Cost of electricity, affecting competitiveness of the hydropower projects.

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

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(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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DRP 250324: Celebrating 50 years of Chipko Movement and Message
DRP News Bulletin

DRP 250324: Celebrating 50 years of Chipko Movement and Message

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(Feature Image: A photo taken in March 1974 of people in Raini village, Uttarakhand, a few days after they protested against the felling of trees in order to make tennis racquets. Source: Varsha Singh/Third Pole report dated 30 Nov. 2022. The original photograph was taken on 30 March, 1974 by Chandi Prasad Bhatt and has been reproduced in The Third Pole with permission)

As we celebrate the golden jubilee of Chipko Movement, one of the most iconic and memorable environmental movements of India, we need to remember the key messages of the movement. It may seem gloomy situation at the place where the movement originated in Raini village in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. In fact, as we travel from Raini to Chamoli to Uttarakhand and beyond, as far as environmental situation is concerned, there is not too much around us to celebrate about.

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