Vulnerabilities of East Flowing RiversSome Issues and Concerns

S.Janakarajan

Professor

Madras Institute of Development Studies

Chennai – 600 020

janak@mids.ac.in

Western Ghats – The Foundation of South India

Western Ghats (WG) - the well known hot spot for ecology and bio-diversity in

India and the core of South Indian lung-space

The east flowing rivers – most of which originate from the WG – are the mainstay

of South Indian life and livelihoods

The major east flowing rivers are Krishna, Godavari, Pennar and CauveryThe major east flowing rivers are Krishna, Godavari, Pennar and Cauvery

There are hundreds of small and medium rivers and streams (forming large river

basins) contribute to the richness of the region – (for the state-wise information see

the word file)

The subject is so vast that for the present purpose I shall restrict primarily to

Cauvery and to some extent to Krishna and Godavari

"The Western Ghats has to be made an "ecologically sensitive

zone". It is as important as the ecological system of the

Himalayas for protection of the environment and climate of the

country. The Central government will not give sanction for

mining and hydroelectric projects proposed by the State

Governments of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa that will

destroy the Western Ghats ecosystem”destroy the Western Ghats ecosystem”

Minister of Environment and Forest, Mr.Jairam Ramesh (1999)

Some basic details of east flowing rivers

River

basin

Catchmen

ts area sq

km

Average

annual

potential

km3

Utilizable

surface

water

potential

KM3

Live

storage

capacities

incl. those

projects

under

constructiconstructi

on (KM3)

Godavari 3,12,812 110.54 76.30 31.33

Krishna 2,58,948 78.12 58.00 49.55

Cauvery 81,155 21.36 19.00 8.87

Pennar 55,213 6.32

Inter-state nature of rivers of Western Ghats

Krishna – traversing a distance of 1440 KM – flows through the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and AP

Cauvery – traversing a distance of 820 KM – flows through the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry- The upper part of the basin partly falls in the Kerala state

Godavari – traversing a distance of 1465 KM – flows through the states of Godavari – traversing a distance of 1465 KM – flows through the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and AP

Pennar – traversing a distance of 597 KM – flows through the states of Karnataka, AP and Tamil Nadu

Critical issues concerning the east flowing rivers

• Increasing water needs of agriculture but dwindling water

supply

• Upstream development and reduced flow in the downstream

• Competing demand / claim for water across users and uses

• Increasing pollution load and environmental security

concerns

• Delta vulnerability and food security concerns• Delta vulnerability and food security concerns

• Climate change impacts

• Water conflicts – important of which are Inter-state water

disputes, between urban-peri-urban and pollution induced

Water quandaries need contextualization

• Unsustainable development, least concern for environment

flow, myopic water governance, fractured institutions and

unhealthy hydrocratic hegemony over water science

• Persisting poverty, growing inequality and deprivation

• Lack of access to basic needs such as food, water, housing

and health

• Competitive populism

• Myopic and sectoral approach for growth and development• Myopic and sectoral approach for growth and development

• Lack of transparency, lack of information flow, lack of scientific

data generation and dissemination

• Inadequate and unscientific planning

• Growing environmental and ecological concerns

• Rapid, uncontrolled and unplanned urbanization and

industrialization and conversion of rural poverty into urban

poverty

Krishna in troubled water

Krishna river basin covers an area of 2,58,000 sq km (nearly 8% of India’s geog area)in major – developed states of Maharashtra, K’taka and AP with a combinwed population of over 70 miillion in the basin

All the basin states are experiencing very high demand for agri.

Highly industrialized with a high degree of urbanizationHighly industrialized with a high degree of urbanization

Industrial, urban and drinking water needs have been escalating and so also the pollution load in the river

Increasing competing claims result in rising water conflicts

Growth, employment, livelihood options and food security are extremely dependent upon Krishna water

The estimated total irrigation requirements for 2001 are

estimated to be 34 km3 and this will reach 43 km3 by 2035.

The irrigation efficiency used for this estimate is 50% for

surface water and 60% for groundwater. To meet the growing

food demand more water will be required for irrigated

agriculture even after improving irrigation efficiency. And, there

is also a growing demand for industry and domestic needs

besides needs for environmental flow.

Yee,M.S. et al., 2009Yee,M.S. et al., 2009

• But the annual availability of surface water in the basin is 78.12 KM3

• Main issues relate to the water availability across reaches of the basin –upper reaches are reach compared to the tail reach, where the current water deficit is already over 40%; Further the pollution load is more severely felt in the down stream – in particular from upper Krishna, upper Bhima and Tungabadra where the industrial water demand is growing every day

Pollution intensity in the Krishna basin• The river receives the pollution load from all major, medium ands small towns and hundreds of industries and mining activities – major cities which dump the pollution load in the river include Pune, Satara, Kolhapur, Hyderabad, Kurnool and Vijaywada. • Over 500 important industrial units (many of them toxic) 200 of which are large-scale and red industrial are located in the basin; Besides, mining activities (in particular Hospet region) contribute to heavy pollution and sediment load • The high tech city Hyderabad contributes to nearly 650 mld of polluted water and sewage originating from the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad and sewage originating from the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad • Two units of Gwalior Rayon Silk Manufacturing (Weaving) Company Ltd (Grasim) and the whole indusrtrial complex of Dharwar together generates nearly 33,000 cum of effluents which is dumped in the Tungabadra river. This has severely affected hundreds of villages and health and livelihoods of the people in the downstream• But the worst affected are the fisher folks. Huge bunches of fish kills have become common in the T’bhadra river - A study by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, showed that the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) levels in the raw effluents released into the river were 1,000 mg/l.

Cauvery – not very different from Krishna

Disturbing featuresHighly used and deficit basin

Very high competing claims

Highly industrialized and urbanized states of TN and KAR depend upon Cauvery

for irrigation, Drinking and industrial needs – Drinking water supply of about 50% in

KAR and 80% in TN is received from Cauvery, including the major city of Bangalore

Acutely polluted with serious implications

Have been experiencing a bitter inter-state water dispute being fought over a

period of 35 yearsperiod of 35 years

Water flow in the down stream is drastically reduced and the environmental flow

into the sea is nil except in the N-E monsoon period (October-December); As a

consequence there is a reverse flow of seawater through hundreds of backwater

canals and streams which join the Bay of Bengal; This has resulted in salinity of

groundwater and soil up to 40 KM in the coastal districts of Nagapptinam,

Cuddalore and Tiruvarur

Category Inventory

Large Medium Small Total

Red Orange Gree

n

Red Orange Green Red Orange Green

Coastal

Distri

401 131 35 441 518 274 2740 3259 708 8507

Inventory of Industries in Tamil Nadu (January 2002)

Distri

cts

Total

Non-

Coast

al

Distri

cts

Total

312 361 19 429 1065 73 5521 6097 324 14201

State

Total

713 492 54 870 1583 347 8261 9356 1032 22708

Source: TNPCB

Threats confronted by the deltaic eco-system-Delta VulnerabilityAlready the Increased tourism and concentration of industrial activities (all water

intensive units such as refineries, chemical industries, cement, textile and tanneries

are located in the coastal and delta regions) contributing to devastating impacts on

the delta / coastal population

Seawater rise and other coastal hazards such as storms and cyclones

Very high level of human settlements

Marginalized cropland and increased salinity of land and soil leading to loss of

livelihoods and eco-system collapse

Lack of clean freshwater due to saltwater contamination resulting in health hazards

Fragility of thousands of backwater canals – their traditional roles – and the collapse

of the delta eco-system due to anthropogenic and coastal extreme events

Fragile lifestyle, uncertain and insecure livelihoods of millions of fisher folks

Specific Features of Delta VulnerabilitiesPhysicalVolatile and fragile ecosystem

Groundwater salinization

Soil salinity

LECZ – flood prone – both from sea and rivers

Mono cropped area for centuries

Plastic clay (powdered) soil

Low yield due to poor soil fertility

Vulnerability of marsh lands due to raising salinity level and beach erosion

Estuaries, Lagoons. Tanks ands ponds are turning saline

Backwater rivers and canals carry reverse flow of sea water due to reduced

freshwater flow

Climate related

Cyclones (According to the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre, four times more cyclones

are formed in the Bay of Bengal than in the Arabian Sea).

Heavy rainfall in a few days

Erratic monsoons

Intense or heavy spells in a few days

Changing agricultural seasons

Seawater rise / beach erosion / seawater inundation

The specific vulnerability of Cauvery Delta

The population density along the coast and delta is 528 per sq. km which is

almost double the State’s average

Of the state's total population of approximately 62 million almost 29 million live

along the thirteen coastal districts of which over 60% falls in the Cauvery basin –

the districts of Nagappattinam, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Pudukkottai and a part of

Cuddalore districts

The Nagappatinam district is doubly disadvantaged: One, most part of this district The Nagappatinam district is doubly disadvantaged: One, most part of this district

falls within the LECZ ;Two, most part of this district also lies below sea-level.

Of the total geographical area of this district, 56% falls below sea level which is

flood prone, and 18% constitutes marshy land which is just at the sea-level, 3% of

the cultivable land is affected by severe salinity while the unaffected land

constitute only 7%

Complexity of Coastal eco-system

Climate change impact

IPCC and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

have identified Coastal Deltas and Coastal wetlands as the

ecosystems, which are most vulnerable to direct and large-

scale impacts of climate change – due to the impending threat

of sea level rise and the increasing frequency and severity of

extreme events which will have a serious consequences on

hydrological regime and livelihood options of the people hydrological regime and livelihood options of the people

Continued loss of coastal ecosystems will have tremendous

economic as well as biological consequences.

Climate change impact

Erratic monsoons, high intensity of floods and droughts are predicted

The IPCC predicts that climate change will increase the intensity and frequency of weather extremes over the next half-decade; It has been predicted that an area of 5763 km2 along the Coastal States of India i.e., 0.41% could be inundated and almost 7.1 million i.e., 4.6 % of coastal population could be directly affected (cf. Table IV) (TERI, 1996)

A study carried out by Gosain et al (2006) predicts that there is going to be a A study carried out by Gosain et al (2006) predicts that there is going to be a 20% decline in the precipitation in the Krishna basin as a con consequence of which the there would be a reduction in the run off to the extent of 30 to 50%. This will have a serious implications for the food security.

We could safely assume similar consequences in the other east flowing rivers also

Added to the existing vulnerabilities and uncertainties, the situation in the east

flowing rivers is seemingly quite grave and threatening

Onset Date of Northeast Monsoon in Tamil Nadu 1980-2008

Climate change impact

• While the rich countries have better coping mechanisms, the developing and the poor countries

are more vulnerable due to lack of adequate infrastructure, greater dependence upon agriculture,

persisting poverty, malnutrition, low level of literacy, bad housing, lack of safe drinking water and

sanitation and so forth.

A series of questions need to be answered rather desperately:

• Does government take any conscious efforts in protecting commons and eco-systems?

• Is there anything called National Adaptation Plan for the poor and the most vulnerable?

• Do we have any estimates on possible climate change impacts on agriculture and overall GDP?

• In what way have we strengthened our early warning systems and disaster risk reduction

strategies? strategies?

• Have we built the capacities of lower and middle level government officials in disaster mitigation,

disaster risk reduction strategies, information dissemination and in awareness building?

• All coping measures hitherto undertaken have been ad hoc and structural in nature with almost

no effect.

• Land based and non-land based, long-term disaster preparedness and risk reduction strategies

and early warning systems have not been part of any policy planning framework so far.

• What we need therefore is the long-term adaptive strategies for the delta region in order to

protect the livelihoods of the vulnerable sections of the population from the impending threat of

climate change.

Summing up

The east flowing rivers and river basins are supposed to be the primary rice growing

areas of India and food basket of South India

But this region is becoming increasingly vulnerable due to various socio-economic,

hydrological and climatic factors – while waterr availability is dwindling, the demand

for water has been shooting up rapidly

This is also the region where food security and livelihood security of people are

seriously challenged due to multiplicity of factors such as growing high population

density, water scarcity, erratic monsoons, high frequency and intensity of

cyclones and storms, uncontrolled floods, salinity of soil and water bodies cyclones and storms, uncontrolled floods, salinity of soil and water bodies including groundwater and coastal wetlands, growing anthropogenic factors

contributing to a high order pollution, rapid urbanization process leading to

untreated urban sewage levels and most important of all the high

demographic pressure.

Furthermore, the issues are going to get more compounded and complex due to the

impending climate change threat

Therefore, there is an urgent need to take stock of the current situation and find

ways to overcome the volatile situation

Way forward• One of the main aims of this consultation seems to be how best water originating

from the western ghats could be harnessed and conserved for the benefit of people

and functioning of the ecosystem

• In the light of the discussion that we have just had there is an urgent need to protect

the water resources originating from the WG by preventing deforestation, by putting a

stop to the untreated effluent and municipal sewage joining all major rivers, tributaries

and hundreds of streams – this is very importanrt

• Coastal ecology and deltas are so vital for life and livelihoods which very much

depends upon the steady river flows all through the year – this warrants for a

substantial saving of water - this could be ensured by introducing appropriate land use

pattern, crop pattern, conjunctive use of GW and surface water and by adopting

modern water saving techniques – in Cauvery delta studies indicate that the water

saving techniques could save water up to 40% of current water use

• Need appropriate climate change mitigation policies and adaptation strategies

• Finally what we also need is a comprehensive policy backed by legislation for a

better river basin management, stringent pollution control laws along with law

enforcement and monitoring mechanisms, laws to protect delta ecosysyem – only to

ensure life, livelihoods, to ensure food security

Thanks a lot for the opportunity and

listening listening