DRP 290724: Dam Floods need urgent attention

July 29, 2024February 28, 2026 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 080724: Why IMD & CWC are unable to improve forecasts, reporting & help improve flood management?

July 8, 2024February 28, 2026 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 010724: Time for independent review of Polavaram Project?

July 1, 2024February 28, 2026 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 200524: After Ten years of Namami Gange and Rs 40 000 Cr expenditure Ganga remains dirty

May 20, 2024February 28, 2026 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 130524: Unreliable Hydropower poses new challenges for India

May 13, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: NHPC’s under construction 2000 Mw Subansiri Lower Hydro Power Project. Source: PIB, June 2023)

As per this Reuters report based on official information and statements, in June 2024 India will face the biggest peak hour power shortfall in 14 years, mainly due to the slump in hydropower generation. This is the result of not only pushing hydropower projects over the decades, but also not taking any steps to optimize peaking power generation from existing hydro or doing anything worthwhile to manage peak load. India’s hydropower generation had steepest fall in four decades in the year ending on March 31 2024, which was another reason not on rely on unreliable hydropower projects. The regular and frequent disasters that we see connected with hydropower projects in almost every month and more frequently in monsoons should be another reason in this regard.

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DRP News Bulletin

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

May 6, 2024February 28, 2026 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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DRP News Bulletin

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

April 29, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(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 News Bulletin

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

April 22, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

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 News Bulletin

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

April 1, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(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 News Bulletin

DRP 050224: IMD needs to improve forecasting and sharing, but doing the opposite?

February 5, 2024February 28, 2026 SANDRP4 Comments

(Feature Image: Climate change catoon by Jug Suraiya & Partho Sengupta. ToI, 23 June 2018)

The decision of the IMD to shut down 199 of its district agromet units across India is disturbing on a number of counts. In the era of climate change when the key parameters are undergoing such rapid change, there is need for increasing monitoring and sharing of climate information by the IMD and need to in fact decentralize the whole effort. But this decision of IMD is going against this basic requirement.

In fact, the IMD has become a sort of holy cow, while in reality its performance in monitoring, forecasting and sharing information in time is far from satisfactory. This is increasingly evident every year when IMD fails to provide not only accurate, actionable, rainfall forecasts sufficiently in advance to help reduce the flood disasters and also take timely decisions on reservoir operations, IMD also fails to provide even timely information about the actual rainfall on ground and how that rainfall is going to get converted to inflows in rivers and reservoirs. Similarly, the district agromet units can provide farmer level and decentralized accurate rainfall monitoring and forecasting information that can help farmers take timely decisions.

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