INTER LINKING OF RIVERS IN INDIA:

A SOLUTION FOR WATER CRISIS IN INDIA

OR DESCISION IN DOUBT?

PRESENTED BY – VIKAS KUMAR

INTRODUCTIONTODAY WE ARE WATER STRESSED, BUT TOMORRROW WE WILL BE WATER SCARCE.

WHY WILL BE INDIA WATER DEFICIT?

• Annual rainfall- 400 m.ha.m.

• Total utilizable surface and ground water after full development of water resources-114m.ha.m.

UTILIZATION:

• 1991- 58m.ha.m.• 2001- 79m.ha.m• 2025- 114m.ha.m

Thus the entire quantum of utilization water will be exhausted by the year 2025.

Proposed solution

INTERLINKING OF RIVERS

NRLP

• The National River Linking Project (NRLP) is designed to ease water shortages in western and southern India while mitigating the impacts of recurrent floods in the eastern parts of the Ganga basin.

• The NRLP, if and when implemented, will be one of the biggest inter basin water transfer projects in the world.

HISTORY OF INTERLINKING• 1972-Ganga cauvery link proposed by Dr. K.L. Rao .

• 1974-“Garland canal” proposal by captain Dastur .

• 1980-Ministry of water resources frames the National perspective plan(NPP) .

• 1982-The National water development agency (NWDA) set up to carry out pre – feasibility studies .

• 1999-A National commission (NCIWRDP) set up to review NWDA reports .

• Aug 15, 2002- President Abdul Kalam mentions the need for river linking in his independence day speech .

• Oct 2002- Supreme court recommends that the government formulate a plan to link the major Indian rivers by the year 2012.

• Dec 2002- Govt. appointed a task force on interlinking of 37 rivers led by Mr. Suresh Prabhu. The deadline was revised to 2016.

Contours of NRLP…

• Building 30 links, 3000 small and large reservoirs, 12500 km of canals to link 36 Himalayan and Peninsular rivers to effect 178 km3 of inter-basin water transport.

• 35 million ha of new irrigated area; 35 GW of hydro-capacity; navigation and flood control benefits.

• Gestation Period: Proposed=2016; Most Likely=2050

• Cost = Rs 560,000 cr. at 2002 prices (US $ 120 Billion); 1 - 1.5% of India’s GDP for the next 3 decades.

The Inter-link consist of two parts, a Northern Himalayan River Development Component and a Southern Peninsular River Development Component.

Himalayan Development

The northern component would consist of a series of dams built along the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers in India, Nepal and Bhutan for the purposes of storage.

Canals would be built to transfer surplus water from the eastern tributaries of the Ganga to the west.

The Brahmaputra and its tributaries would be linked with the Ganga and the Ganga with the Mahanadi river.

This part of the project would provide additional irrigation for about 220,000 square kilometers and generate about 30 gig watts of electricity.

It could also provide excess water for the controversial Farakka Barrage which could be used to flush out the silt at the port of Kolkata

Peninsular Development First, the Mahanadi, Godavari. Krishna

and Kaveri rivers would all be linked by canals. The purpose of this would be to transfer surplus water from the Mahanadi and Godavari rivers to the south of India.

Second, those rivers that flow west to the north of Mumbai and the south of Tapi would be linked. The water would be used by the urban areas of Bombay and also to provide irrigation in the coastal areas of Maharashtra.

Third the Ken and Chambal rivers would be linked in order to provide better water facilities for Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Finally a number of west-flowing rivers along the Western Ghats simply discharge into the Arabian Sea.

The Peninsular part of the project would provide additional irrigation to 130,000 square kilometers and generation an additional 4 gig watts of power.

Reasons & MotivationOf

Inter Linking

Reasons And Motivation of Inter LinkingRegional rainfall variation: . The summer monsoon accounts for more than 85% of the precipitation. Large parts of Haryana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are not only in deficit in rainfall but also subject to large variations, resulting in frequent droughts and causing immense hardship to the population and enormous loss to the nation.Regional variations in the rainfall lead to a situations when some parts of the country do not have enough water even for raising a single crop. On the other hand excess rainfall occurring in some parts of the country create havoc due to floods.

Futuristic Demand for Irrigation: At present estimate the "ultimate" irrigation potential of the country being stated as 113 million Ha. However, to feed the estimated 1.5 to 1.8 billion people in 2050 with 450 million tons of food grains, India needs to increase its irrigation potential to 160 million hectares. Hence, strategies like inter-basin water transfer are looked upon.

Domestic Water Needs :The per capita availability of utilizable water has been reduced progressively from 3450 cubic meters to 1250 cubic meters from 1951 to 2000 owing to the increasing population. In the next 50 years, it is likely to come down to 760 cubic meters (for a projected population of 1.6 billion) (Gupta 2001).Thus, at the household level, the per-capita availability has been reducing progressively and more than 25% of villages suffer from drinking water problems (Gupta 2001).

To Control Floods and Droughts: Floods are a recurring feature, particularly in Brahmaputra and Ganga rivers, in which almost 60 % of the river flows of our country occur. Flood damages, which were Rs. 52 crores in 1953, have gone up to Rs. 5,846 crore in 1998 with annual average being .Rs 1,343 crore affecting the States of Assam, Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh along with untold human sufferings. On the other hand large areas in the States of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu face recurring droughts. As much as 85 % of drought prone areas falls in these States.

Stated Benefits Flood Control (40 million ha area and 260 million people saved

from floods that leads to damages of Rs 2400 crore/year) Drought proofing (86 million people in 14 states, 116 districts

saved) Relief of 1200 crore per year from floods/ drought damages Irrigation: 35 m ha & availability of drinking water. Hydropower generation 34 000 MW installed capacity Food grains production: 450 million tonnes by 2050 Navigation Generation of employment

Flood/Drought prevention

Rivers Average flood discharge(cumecs)

Water to be diverted through ILR canal(cumecs)

Brahamputra 60,000 1,500 (2.5%)

Ganga 50,000 1,000 (2.0%)

By creating network of rivers flood & drought problem can be greatly avoided by channeling excess water to areas that are not experiencing a flood or are dry. This works similar to canal system in Netherlands to channel excess water from sea.

Avoid the losses of the type that occurred in 2002 to the extent of $550 million by the loss of crops because of extreme draught or flood condition.

( ILR figures from official website: www.riverlinks.nic.in) •ILR can clearly not help solve flood /drought problems.

According to President (speech on 110505) flood affects 8 major basins, 40 m ha and 260 m people; 86 m people, 14 states and 116 districts are affected by drought annually.

ILR is to have Lined Canals with 1:3,000 to 1:5,000 slope or 0.33 to 0.20 m per km. Maximum flow velocity 2 m/s. A 100 m wide & 10 m deep lined canal can carry about 1,000 cumecs.

Can ILR solve flood “problem”?

Generation of electricity Links will consume, and not generate power.

PUMPED LIFT OF WATER

Ganga-Subarnarekha (G-S): 60m

Subarnarekha-Mahanadi (S-M): 48 m

Godavari-Krishna (G-K): 116m Need for 3,400 MW of dedicated power generation.

[Source : http://riverlinks.nic.in/taskforce.asp ]

Pumping water over the Vindhya Mountains can transfer the Ganga-Brahmaputra water and its

tributaries to regions in the south.

The Ganga-Brahmaputra floodplains are about ten meters above mean sea level (MSL). The Vindhya Mountains are about 300 m above MSL, separating the floodplains of the north from the Deccan Plateau, which is 250 m above MSL (Vombatkere 2003).

The electric power required to pump water to such heights will be close to the current power generation of the entire nation.

One of the figures thrown around by the proponents of river links schemes is 30 000 MW which sometimes becomes 34 000 MW as power generation potential of river link proposal.

ILR PRICE TAG• The NWDA budgets the entire project at Rs

5600 Billion ($112 B) at 2002 prices.• The Himalayan component of this plan would

cost Rs 3750 Billion and the peninsular part, Rs 1850 Billion.

• Where is the investible capital of this magnitude available in the domestic economy?

• The only option would be funds from international sources.

• Apart from the fact that this would place a debt of about $112 on every Indian (where average annual income is $400-$800), it also raises question about how this loan is to be returned.

• Moreover, annual interest on this amount would range between Rs 200 Billion and Rs 300 Billion. (NEWSTIME 271102, THE HINDU 020203)

ISSUES CAUSED BY INTERLINKING AND IT’S CONCERNS

1. Ecological issues – Major concern being the argument that rivers change their course in 70–100 years and once they are linked, future change of course can create huge practical problems for the project.

2. Aqua life – A number of leading environmentalists are of the opinion that the project could be an ecological disaster. There would be a decrease in downstream flows resulting in reduction of fresh water inflows into the seas seriously jeopardizing aquatic life.

3. Deforestation –Creation of canals would need large areas of land resulting large scale deforestation in certain area.

4. Areas getting submerged - Possibility of new dams comes with the threat that habitable or reserved land getting submerged under water.

5. Displacement of people –As large strips of land might have to be converted to canals, a considerable population living in this areas must need to be rehabilitated to new areas.

6. Technical feasibility- The slope, altitude and other topographical aspects have to be considered. (e.g. for Ganga, Patna is diversible surplus but for raising water to Vindhya chain i.e. 2860 ft. high enormous amount of power is required).

ALTERNATIVE TO INDIAN RIVER LINKING

1. Rainwater harvesting and conservation of water resources. 2. Recharging ground water reservoir.3. Community participation: President of India visited Alwar to honour the

people of Bhavta Kolyali villages for their successful community work in harvesting water and along with 72 other villages of Arvari river basin, make the river perennial .

4. Maintaining existing irrigation Infrastructure: The irrigation efficiencies are notoriously low at around 35% at best. As mid term of review of 9th Plan made it clear, even 10% increase in irrigation efficiency could lead to additional irrigation potential of 14 M Ha. That would still be far from the optimum possible efficiency. Should we not be attempting this on priority basis?

5. Virtual Water Trade : The virtual water trade concept suggest that water-rich countries should produce and export water-intensive commodities to water-scarce countries, thereby enabling the latter to divert their precious water resources to alternative, higher-productivity uses. Analysis by Verma et al. (2008) shows that the amount of virtual water traded between states is more or less equivalent to the water transfers of 178 Bm3 proposed in the NRLP. The concept of virtual water can be one of the alternatives to river linking.

Current Status..A Group on Intra State River links has been constituted by MoWR, RD & GR on 12.03. 2015. The Group has reviewed all relevant issues on Intra – State River Links including the definition of such link, consider and suggest about the funding of intra state river link projects. The Group has held various meetings and submitted its report on 28.05.2015 to the Ministry of Water Resource, RD & GR. Ken – Betwa Link Project The various clearances for Ken – Betwa link project are in the advance stages and the Government will start implementing this National Project as model link project of ILR programme. Damanganga – Pinjal Link Project The DPR of Damanganga – Pinjal link was completed in March, 2014 and submitted to Governments of Maharasthra and Gujarat. Govt. of Maharasthra has submitted the Detailed Project Report of Damanganga – Pinjal link project to Central Water Commission during January, 2015 for appraisal. Mahanadi – Godavari Link Project Mahanadi Godavari link is the first and critical link of nine link system of Mahanadi Godavari Krishna Pennar Cauvery Vaigai Gundar under Peninsular Component of NPP.The Government of Odisha was not agreeable for the Mahanadi (Manibhadra) Godavari (Dowlaiswaram) link due to large submergence involved in Manibhadra dam proposed under the link project. Based on the suggestions of WRD, Govt. of Odisha, NWDA has proposed a revised preliminary proposal of Mahanadi Godavari link project with reduced submergence. A presentation on the revised proposal of Mahanadi Godavari link project has been made to the Hon’ble Chief Minister, Govt. of Odisha on 29.05.2015 by the senior officers of MoWR, RD & GR.

Conclusion• Considering the pragmatic view of all the issues raised it

can be concluded that implementation of this ambitious scheme is not easily possible in foreseeable future. The fundamental trouble with the idea of river linking plans, then is that the idea has no studies or sound basis.

• Hence it can be a better option to concentrate on the local resources and think upon the alternatives available.

• River interlinking will create a human disaster to rival Mohammed Tughlak’s shifting of the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad in the fourteenth century .

Reference

• Water Policy Research : By Upali Amarasinghe.• South Asia Network On Dams, Rivers & People; SANDRP New

Delhi.• River Linking -S. Kalyanaraman.• INTER-LINKING OF INDIAN RIVERS-NEED AND IMPORTANCE:

R.K.Sivanappan Journal of Indian Water resources Society, Vol 32, No. 3-4, July-Oct, 2012.

• www.riverlinks.nic.in• Anatomy of Interlinking Rivers in India: By A.C Shukla &

Vandana Asthana.• INTERLINKING OF RIVERS IN INDIA: ISSUES & CHALLENGES

: By DHARMENDRA MEHTA, NAVEEN K. MEHTA.• Ministry of Water Resources, Government of india.