DRP NB 10 May 2021: Velcan Holdings provide another evidence of unviable large hydro in India

May 10, 2021May 10, 2021 SANDRP1 Comment

Velcan Holdings Group is developing Heo and Tato-1 Hydropower projects with total installed capacity of 426 MW in Siang basin in Arunachal Pradesh since 2007. The international company with deep pockets and access to international capital markets has not been able to start work even in 2021. It obtained a number clearances, some of the like the CEA (Central Electricity Authority) techno-economic clearance has lapsed. No significant progress is seen in Land Acquisition as local people are rightly opposing. It is unable to find any buyers for the power to be generated, no one is ready to sign PPA (Power Purchase Agreement). The company questions if the low allocation to hydropower purchase obligations will at all help in making the projects bankable (clearly implying that the projects are not bankable currently). This is the state what it describes its Siang basin hydropower projects as the “the only hydropower projects of such size in India owned and developed by a foreign investor”, which “are amongst the most advanced private projects and present competitive techno-economic and environmental features”. The state of the rest of the large hydro projects will clearly be much worse. Why is the government pushing such unviable, destructive projects?

Read the excerpts from the company’s statutory filing in Europe on Apr 30, 2021 below.

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Water Options

World Water Day 2021: Positive Water Stories-2

March 22, 2021March 22, 2021 SANDRPLeave a comment

The second part of positive water developments of India on WWD 2021 highlight water conservation efforts by villagers, farmers, citizens, state governments. The first part with ten most remarkable stories can be seen here.

This compilation has four sections. The first one covers zone wise the efforts by communities, organizations. The second section has Inspiring Individual Initiatives. Third part has stories related to efforts of returned migrants during lockdown, under the MNAREGA. The Fourth Section has some steps taken by state governments in exploring local alternatives to meet potable and irrigation water demands. Some additional water reports in the same context are given at the end.

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World Water Day India 2020: Top Positive Stories from Farmers

March 21, 2020March 22, 2020 SANDRP1 Comment

The theme for World Water Day 2020 is ‘Water and Climate Change’. Indeed the changing climate has been altering the weather system in multiple ways. Extreme weather events like flash floods, intense heat, prolonged droughts, intense cold spells striking different parts of the world are increasingly being linked to the climate change. Changing water cycle is a major consequence. The farmers are among the most affected, facing all kinds of water problems including droughts, scarcity, flooding, hail storms, cyclones, unseasonal rains and pollution.

Several initiatives are being taken by the farmers, civil society groups to find right solutions to the water challenges, many of which have brought positive changes. Here we have compiled some such positive water options from the past one year. We hope this can encourage us to look for such community driven water options.

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Agriculture · Water

World Water Day 2019: Positive Water Actions by Farmers, Governments

March 22, 2019March 23, 2019 SANDRP4 Comments

Today is World Water Day. The theme[1] for this year is ‘Leaving No One Behind’. In India it’s onset of summer. As usual, many parts of country have started facing water scarcity. After deficient monsoon, half of the country is in drought grip. The drought is further compounding the already stressed situation. Cauvery river has started drying[2]. The monsoon failure and drying of surface water sources have severely affect the ground water resource, which is depleting across the country.

Presently groundwater is lifeline[3] of India. It caters to meet 85 per cent of drinking water supply in rural parts. About 65 per cent of urban potable water supply is also based on ground water. Similarly 65 per cent of agricultural area is irrigated by water below the ground and it is meeting about 55 per cent of industrial demand.

The Water Aid report titled Beneath the Surface: State of the World’s Water 2019 released in this month, draws grim picture of ground water depletion in India. It says that about 24 per cent of all India’s water use is extracted ground water. With about 250 cubic km of extraction, India draws out more groundwater than any other in the world — more than that of China and the US combined. Because of this, the rate of groundwater depletion has increased by 23% between 2000 and 2010.

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Dams · DRP News Bulletin

DRP News Bulletin 29 October 2018: Better Paddy Options Exist For Punjab

October 29, 2018 SANDRPLeave a comment

A try-out of the technique to grow paddy without puddling at village Chehlan of Ludhiana has resulted in higher yield in comparison to puddled fields, while saving water in the process. The crop was ready for harvest days before expected time, saving irrigation water otherwise to be used for another fourteen days. This trial was funded and supervised by ATMA, a central govt. scheme under the Union Ministry of Agriculture.

Puddling is a traditional method of flooding paddy fields with running water, whereas in non-puddling technique, ‘ridges and furrows’ are formed in soil to let water store in spaces and let it stay, thus reducing irrigation frequency.

“Not paddy but puddling is the enemy of waters of Punjab. It is wastage of water to puddle fields as most of it just evaporates. We have saved 45-50 per cent of water in non-puddled fields. Our yield has been almost 30 per cent more from fields where crop was not puddled. Also, non-puddled crop matured very early, saving at least ten days of irrigation water,” says Rupinder Singh Chahal (43) who along with his brothers Jasvir Singh (48) and Kulwinder Singh (52) experimented with ‘non-puddling’ technique on four acres this year.

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Dams · Ganga

HOW MODI GOVERNMENT WENT HORRIBLY WRONG ON GANGA REJUVENATION

October 16, 2018 SANDRP4 Comments

Guest Blog by Manoj Misra

Allowing Swami Gyan Swarup Sanand (formerly Prof. GD Agarwal) to die unheard is perhaps the most tragic but not the only serious faux pas committed by Prime Minister Modi and his team in the matter of Ganga rejuvenation. It was actually the culmination of a series of missteps that began early in his tenure.

It can reasonably be presumed that candidate Modi was sincere and serious when he made those famous statements at Varanasi during his campaign (and even later) regarding Ganga rejuvenation. They seemed straight from his heart and seemed to be convincing to many. Everybody thought, “Here is a Prime Minister, who does not – contrary to his predecessor – need goading to make all the right noises”. Hopefully these noises shall result into right actions as well. So much so that Swami Sanand waited almost four years before making his discomfort on lack of any worthwhile progress on Ganga rejuvenation known directly to the Prime Minister. He wrote a number of letters before and after embarking (beginning 22 June 2018) on his legendary 111 day fast that ultimately led to his martyrdom on 11 Oct 2018.

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Dams · DRP News Bulletin

DRP News Bulletin 23 July 2018: Landmark CAG Reports on DAM FLOODS & Ineffective; Costly Mega Irrigation Projects

July 23, 2018July 23, 2018 SANDRPLeave a comment

In its latest report, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has questioned implementation of sixteen National Irrigation Projects. Before this, the CAG has held mismanagement in dams’ operation responsible for Chennai floods in 2015. Both these reports are available on its website now.

The CAG report on National Irrigation Projects, tabled in Parliament on July 20, has revealed that sixteen major multi-purpose water projects, taken up on an expeditious basis about a decade ago, are nowhere near completion, with no work being undertaken in as many as 11 projects despite the incumbent govt’s much-wanted focus on improving irrigation facilities in the country.

The report also mentioned that out of the 16 projects, undertaken under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) in Feb 2008, only five projects with estimated irrigation potential of 25.10 lakh hectares were under implementation and even these projects suffer from 8 to 99 per cent shortfall in physical progress, the CAG said. The remaining 11 projects with estimated irrigation potential of 10.48 lakh hectares are yet to commence and are at different stages of approval.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP News Bulletin May 7, 2018: WESTERN GHATS FORESTS ARE VITAL FOR SOUTH WEST MONSOON RAINS IN TAMIL NADU

May 7, 2018May 7, 2018 SANDRP2 Comments

W Ghats Forests vital for Tamil Nadu SW Monsoon Rains Researchers have found that the dense vegetation in the Western Ghats determines the amount of rainfall that Tamil Nadu gets during the summer monsoon. A team led by Prof. Subimal Ghosh from the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has found that dense forests of the Western Ghats contribute as much as 40% of moisture to the southwest monsoon rainfall over Tamil Nadu during normal monsoon years. The average contribution is 25-30%. But during monsoon deficit years, the contribution increases to as high as 50%. Continue reading “DRP News Bulletin May 7, 2018: WESTERN GHATS FORESTS ARE VITAL FOR SOUTH WEST MONSOON RAINS IN TAMIL NADU” →

Dams · DRP News Bulletin

DRP News Bulletin 16 Jan. 2017 (MoEF’s Expert Committee Shows Anti-People, Anti-Environment Biases)

January 16, 2017November 22, 2017 SANDRPLeave a comment

EAC against entertaining ‘anti-development’ representations The expert appraisal committee (EAC) on river valley and hydel projects of the Union Environment Ministry has decided “not to take any cognizance of such representations” received by its members. In its Dec. 30, 2016 meeting, the committee concluded that once a project proposal reaches the EAC for appraisal, it has crossed the stage of public consultation and “the EAC should not go back in time, and should not reopen it, by entertaining unsubstantiated representations received from the people”.

The EAC noted that in case of any clarification regarding action taken on such representations under the RTI Act, the EAC prescribed that a standard reply “action has been taken in accordance with the decisions taken in the 1st meeting of the EAC for River Valley and HEP on 30.12.2016” should suffice. “It was also felt that many of the objections raised are repetitive. Many such kind of representations have an anti-development attitude so that the projects are kept on hold or delayed. This has financial implications to the developers in particular and to the nation in general.

The committee emphasized that relevant ministries scrutinised every aspect of a project and proposed it for final appraisal only when all details were in place. If not satisfied that public consultation had been completed properly, the EAC said it could ask the project promoter to do the needful. The committee also made allowance for representations with “new points” and “grave consequences” on which comments from project proponents could be sought. The EAC considered 13 projects in its December 30 meeting and cleared eight of them.

Environmental activists, however, pointed out the impracticality of the contention that representations should be restricted to the 30-day public consultation window. Sripad Dharmadhikari also, in his blog has mentions various reasons to counter the EAC’s suspicious justifications. He also says that the fact that a body which is supposed to represent the environmental perspective displays such an attitude is the biggest critique of the EAC and the environmental clearance process that it is a part of. The newly constituted MOEF’s EAC on River Valley Projects has in their very first meeting shown anti people, anti democratic and anti environment attitude.

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Dams · DRP News Bulletin

DRP News Bulletin 25 Jan. 2016 (Save & Grow: FAO supports SRI)

January 25, 2016January 26, 2016 SANDRPLeave a comment

“Save & Grow” FAO supports SRI A new FAO book out on 18 Jan.16 takes a close look at how the world’s major cereals maize, rice and wheat can be grown in ways that respect and even leverage natural ecosystems. FAO also underscores that “Save and Grow” farming systems are knowledge-intensive, and need to be built on local knowledge and needs, recognizing the important role of farmers as innovators. GREAT to see that this FAO publication (http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4009e.pdf ) contains a very detailed discussion and presentation on SRI, the first time that there has been such an endorsement of SRI (System Rice Intensification). With this publication, FAO joins the World Bank (http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/245848/) and IFAD (http://www.ifad.org/english/sri/ and http://www.ifad.org/english/sri/documents.html).

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