To, July 17, 2025
1 Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena
Honorable LG, Delhi Civil Lines,
New Delhi-110054
Continue reading “Letter: Encroachment of Yamuna floodplain near Wazirabad Barrage”Tag: River
Himachal Pradesh: Why CWC’s Forecasting is Unavailable Amidst Flood Disaster?
(Feature Image: Screenshot of inactive hydrograph for Solang station on Beas river in Mandi district. Source: CWC Flood Forecast website)
Despite disastrous flood events causing significant destruction to human lives and infrastructures for past three years, the state of Himachal Pradesh has not seen much required improvements in flood monitoring and forecast servicesby the Central Water Commission’s (CWC) to help minimize the destruction toll.
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June 2025: ‘Cloudburst’ damages Jiwa hydro project in Sainj Valley, Himachal Pradesh
(Feature Image: Submerged powerhouse of Jiwa SHP in Siund, Sainj. Source: Amar Ujala)
A massive flash flood following a ‘cloudburst’ has totally damaged the powerhouse and weir site of the Jiwa Small Hydroelectric Project (SHP) in Sainj Valley of Kullu district, Himachal Pradesh on June 25, 2025. The powerhouse of 1 Mw SHP is located in Siund village area near the confluence point of Jiwa nullah with Pin Parbati river. Its weir site is located about 2 km upstream on the Jiwa stream.
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Yamuna Manthan June 2025: Positive water, river stories from Yamuna basin
POSITIVE YAMUNA REPORTS
Uttar Pradesh’s Noon river runs again Jalaun farmers in Bundelkhand will not have to toil too much this season to get water for crops. They have almost revived an 81km-long local river that had dried up completely. Community members have restored the drainage basin over a 14km course of Noon river to create a funnel through which water has again entered it. The river had dried up to encroachments and poor rainfall. The revival commenced in 2021 and reached the final stage only recently, with voluntary labour contributions from thousands of local men and women. Officials said the water would start flowing through the entire course of the river in a fortnight. The river is expected to help more than 15,350 farmers.
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Yamuna Manthan 090525: Will we STOP Commercialization of River Floodplains?
(Feature Image: Redstone stuctures at Vasudev Riverfront site on Yamuna. BS Rawat, SANDRP/ April 2025)
The rhetoric of Sabarmati type river front project for Yamuna in Delhi is getting louder. For over a decade, the DDA has already been working on 11 projects disguised as ‘floodplain restoration’. In recent past, none other than the NGT has flagged concerns over permanent structures and concretization work in some of these projects. Notably, all these cosmetic projects have suffered huge damages in the July 2023 floods.
Despite this, showing no regard to laws and sanctity of floodplains, DDA (Delhi Development Authority) has commercialized some of the projects including the Vasudev riverfront and the Baansera park. Since there is no autonomous body functioning in Delhi to hold the DDA accountable, every week there is news about a new riverfront or park project aiming at further commercializing the Yamuna floodplain.
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Odisha Lawyer Sankar Prasad Pani Interview: Citizen Monitoring Key to Improve Riverbed Mining Governance
(Feature Image: Lawyer Sankar Prasad Pani. Source: Facebook)
Advocate Sankar Prasad Pani is among some of the finest environmental lawyers in Odisha with knowledge about the effective legal remedies for addressing the adverse impacts of unsustainable and illegal riverbed mining. Over the past decade, Sankar Pani has argued in more than 50 cases in the eastern bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The lawyer aims to bring transparency and improve governance in riverbed mining operations in Odisha and has secured remarkable decisions in some of the cases in 2024. In January 2025, the tribunal prohibited sand excavation in Mayurbhanj district following Pani’s intervention. In this interview with the lawyer Sankar Pani, Bhim Singh Rawat of SANDRP focuses on the basics of legal mechanisms and impact as well as limitations of available legal tools concerning the governance of finite natural resource like sand.
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Yamuna Manthan 100425: Blasting at Lakhwar Dam Shaking Hills, Damaging River
Feature Image: Screen grab of social media video shows scale of impact of heavy blasting work at Lakhwar dam on 07 April 2025)
A viral social media video media shows the frightened impact of a huge scale blasting work done for building the main structure of controversial Lakhawar dam on Yamuna river in Dehradun district, Uttarakhand. As per the locals, the blast took place in the morning hours of April 07, 2025, and caused shaking of hills to a large extent apart from blocking the flowing course of river with enormous debris for several hours forcing the project authority to employ heavy machines to clear the blockage.
The social media post shared with the video mentioned that the heavy blast scared the birds in the area and questioned how the company was allowed to destroy the entire hill environment. The heavy blast has indeed created havoc for the aquatic life in the river and downstream projects.
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MoJS Comm. Report on July 2023 Delhi Floods: Fails to explain unprecedented flood levels
(Feature Image: A view of overflowing Yamuna river at Wazirabad in New Delhi on 13 July 2023. Credit: HT_PRINT/Source: Live Mint)
Post July 2023 unusual flood spell in Yamuna river reaching unprecedented levels in Delhi, the Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) on August 06, 2023, constituted a committee for conducting a “Joint flood management study of river Yamuna for its reach between Hathnikund and Okhla Barrage”. The Committee headed by Chairman, Central Water Commission (CWC) & Ex-Officio Secretary to Govt of India with members from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, NCT of Delhi and expert Organizations was mandated to examine the meteorological aspects, return period of floods, discharging capacity of barrages, functional requirement of ITO barrage, etc.
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Unsustainable sand mining in Kashmir Rivers: Dr. Raja Muzaffar Bhat Interview
(Feature Image: Taken from a report titled “Mining in Nallah Romeshi: DMO Pulwama submits report” by Rising Kashmir, 04 Dec. 2024)
When it comes to environmental issues in Kashmir, the Srinagar based Dr. Raja Muzaffar Bhat dons many hats. He is an independent researcher, often tracking river courses, glacier zones and forest lands to gain firsthand insight into the unfolding impact of changing climate, land use on water sources, rivers and people. He is a writer with clear thoughts articulating concerns over ongoing environmental degradation in the region.
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World Water Day 2025: Top Ten Studies on Wastewater Treatment
(Feature Image: The NTU research team behind the solar-powered method to convert sewage sludge into green hydrogen and animal feed. Source: Science Tech Daily)
On the occasion of World Water Day 2025, SANDRP compiles ten studies and research papers revealing the various cost effective and efficient methods to treat sewage and recover nutrients from sewage sludge. The first part of the series highlights water efficient practices being adopted by farming communities in India and the second part covers the water sources conservation efforts being made by the rural communities in the country. The third part has focused on sewage treatment and rainwater harvesting efforts being made in various cities in the country.
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SANDRP 