DRP 17 Jan. 2022: Urban Water Mess visible in advocacy for Renuka and Mekedatu dams

January 17, 2022February 21, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

This week brings heightened advocacy for major dams in the name of Urban Water supplies for cities that have no water policy, no worthwhile good water governance, but are happy demanding more and more water projects from further off places to cater to its unjustifiable demands. This is the underlying theme both in case of Renuka dam for Delhi and Mekedatu dam for Bangalore.

Some media reports are talking about need for additional storages, but in this advocacy there is no place for either efficient use of existing water storages, nor place for decentralised water storage options or underground water storage options, leave aside inclusion of soil moisture, which is a major storage option too.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 10 Jan 2022: Positive Groundwater stories from TN, Haryana

January 10, 2022February 21, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

It’s rather rare that we have some positive stories related to groundwater. This week we have two: One each from Tamil Nadu and Haryana. A recent performance audit report, the CAG has lauded the Tamil Nadu Govt for regulating industry’s groundwater extraction. The CAG has also lauded TN for adopting ‘firka’(which are smaller than blocks and encompasses 10-15 villages) as the assessment unit in 2011 because this is expected to help in identification of pockets of groundwater potential within the over- exploited and critical blocks.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 03 Jan 2022: Are we any safer from Dam Disasters?

January 3, 2022February 21, 2026 SANDRP1 Comment

In the 2021 year-end review by the Ministry of Jal Shakti (Ministry of Water Resources), the passage of the Dam Safety Bill by the parliament figures in headlines. The question is are we any safer from dam disasters due to this? If we take a quick review of the numerous dam disasters just this year and also look at the dam disasters mentioned in this Bulletin that happened just in the last week of the passing year, the answer is clear no. Such disasters include ones in Himachal Pradesh, Nepal and Brazil.

There is also the news here of the Uttarakhand agency report about the Feb 2021 Chamoli disaster, about which the official govt agency has said failure of Early Warning System was a factor in the disaster. The bigger disaster is that the state govt has promptly issued show cause notice to the authors of the paper blaming the lack of EWS!

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Sand Mining

Riverbed Mining India 2021 Overview: Destruction of Rivers, Infrastructures, Governance

January 1, 2022January 5, 2022 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature image:- Rampant sand mining damaging Yamuna’s ecology. Hridesh Joshi/Mongabay India)

The rivers and riverine communities have been going through whole range of adverse impacts on account of large scale riverbed mining operations. The illegal riverbed mining has become a pan India menace and there is hardly a river left, not being mined in the most unscientific manner.

The year 2021, despite being a pandemic year – when developmental activities and economy have faced slow down – has only seen escalation in mining related destruction. Be it threatened aquatic eco-system, precious surface and groundwater resources, costly public infrastructures or land and lives of villagers, farmers and manual miners; all have been paying a heavy price of relentless mining.

This first part of SANDRP’s Year End Overview of sand and riverbed mining sector puts together the top 10 stories from across the country showing how the mindless extraction of minor minerals has been causing major destruction to rivers and people. The following parts of the annual review would focus on state governments’ actions and judicial interventions regarding riverbed mining in 2021.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 271221: PM pushes unviable, destructive Hydro projects in HP

December 27, 2021February 20, 2026 SANDRP2 Comments

Feature Image: Renuka Dam Sangharsh Samiti members take out a protest march at Dadahu in Sirmaur district on Dec. 19, 2021. Tribune photo

What will be the realistic cost of power from hydropower projects being pushed by the Prime Minister during this visit today to Himachal Pradesh? One indication of that comes from the 111 MW Sawra Kuddu HEP that he inaugurates during his visit. The cost of this project is already over Rs 2080 Crores, likely to go up further. Which means per MW installed capacity, the cost is around Rs 20 Crores. At this cost, the cost of power from the project is likely to be over Rs 8 per unit even without factoring in the social, environmental and increased disaster vulnerability costs that such projects impose on the fragile Himalayan Mountains. As if to also remind the active seismic zone, on the eve of his visit, there were tremors, even if mild, in Mandi.

The Renuka dam that he lays the foundation for does not even have all the statutory clearances. Its EIA has been the most dishonest exercise, as came out in the NGT hearings. What signal is the government sending by laying foundation stone for such a project? Similar are the issues with Luhri I and Dhaulasidh HEPs. The government seems to be pushing such outdated, unviable, costly and destructive projects in fragile Himalayan regions, purely on political arithmetic assumptions, but possibly need to realise that these projects are not even popular and they are also most inappropriate in the climate change context. Or is it the lure of spending such huge sums of unaccountable public money that provide opportunities for getting election funds for the party that is driving such undemocratic decisions?

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Dam Safety

Tamil Nadu: Thalavanur check dam collapsed twice within a year

December 22, 2021January 3, 2022 SANDRPLeave a comment

Thalavanur check dam collapsed [i] in morning hours of November 9, 2021. This is the second time the check dam has faced significant damages within a year of its construction. Before this, the same check dam broke down in January, 2021. The first collapse took place 5 months after its inauguration on September 19, 2020. Its construction was started in April 2019.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 201221: Judiciary fails the environment AGAIN

December 20, 2021February 20, 2026 SANDRP3 Comments

By allowing the Char Dham Highway to go ahead, putting aside all the environment, safety, disaster vulnerability and even norms and affidavits of the Ministry of Highways and the Defence Ministry, as well as the report of the expert panel set up by the apex court, the Judiciary has again failed the Environment, among other things. This is contrary to the generally held belief that Judiciary stands up for the cause of the environment. That belief has no real basis, as can be seen again. This is also failure of the governance, experts and environmental groups, besides also the failure of the media too.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 131221: Gargai Dam Scrapped; Wise Move by BMC to Go for Alternatives

December 13, 2021February 20, 2026 SANDRP3 Comments

In a wise move, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has cancelled Gargai dam project. In its January 2014, submission to Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), SANDRP had highlighted the adverse impacts of this project on tribal people and Tansa Sanctuary stressing on alternatives including recycling of sewage and rain water harvesting. Finally, now the BMC has scrapped the unjustified project which would have caused felling of 4.5 lakh trees which BMC chief Iqbal Chahal rightly finds pointless in the wake of increasing climate change threats.

It is worth to mention that in February 2020 BMC was learnt reconsidering its Pinjal dam project and exploring other options including waste water recycling. Indeed the BMC is taking right steps. Dams are costly, destructive projects impacting rivers, forests and local people in multiple ways. The demand side management, efficient use of existing water supplies, rain water harvesting and recycling of waste water are among far better alternatives to meet urban water demands.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 061221: NGT demands accountability for Ganga Cleaning

December 6, 2021February 20, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

The NGT demanding that there is need for greater transparency in the Ganga Cleaning efforts by NMCG and others, leading to accountability for the expected results is no doubt welcome if it were to become a reality. It has been required for long, since the Ganga Cleaning Efforts started in 1980s when Ganga Action Plan started, and it is even more required with the promises coming from the Prime Minister, no less today. Unfortunately, there is no real improvement in the state of the river, as the NGT has said. One only hopes that this latest initiative will lead to some real change, even through the track record of judiciary (including NGT) in this regard is far from inspiring.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP 291121: Pathetic State of Sabarmati River Front in Ahmedabad

November 29, 2021February 20, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

This photo from the Gujarat Samachar newspaper of Ahmadabad on Nov 25, 2021 depicts the reality of Sabarmati River Front Development. It shows that the growth of weed water hyacinth spread all over the stagnant, polluted river channel that is no longer a river. It says the boat service (running into losses) and AC Cruise services have stopped. There is no place for sea planes to land due to the growth of the water hyacinth, but the government has asked for permission to run two sea planes! There is the big issue of pollutants from industries and Ahmedabad flowing into the river that the Gujarat High Court is dealing with (see below).

Similar photos also appeared on the same date in two more Ahmedabad based two newspaper: Dainik Bhaskar and Nav Gujarat Samay, reinforcing the pathetic state of Sabarmati River Front.

Is there any doubt that all River Front Development projects are likely to face similar or worse fate than this? The situation could worsen in near future as both Sardar Sarovar Dam on Narmada and Dharoi dam on Sabarmati in the upstream of Ahmedabad have insufficient storage. In a related development, Rajasthan is threatening to stop flow of 45 TMC water to Mahi Dam, it is pertinent to note that Sabarmati also flows from Rajasthan to Gujarat.

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