The document discusses the ambitious idea of interlinking rivers in India to transfer water from flood-prone areas to drought-prone regions. It notes the benefits would include providing irrigation, reducing floods, and generating hydropower. However, there are also concerns about environmental impacts like loss of biodiversity and conflicts between states over sharing water resources. The first project under this plan to link the Ken and Betwa rivers was recently approved.
The document discusses the ambitious idea of interlinking rivers in India to transfer water from flood-prone areas to drought-prone regions. It notes the benefits would include providing irrigation, reducing floods, and generating hydropower. However, there are also concerns about environmental impacts like loss of biodiversity and conflicts between states over sharing water resources. The first project under this plan to link the Ken and Betwa rivers was recently approved.
The document discusses the ambitious idea of interlinking rivers in India to transfer water from flood-prone areas to drought-prone regions. It notes the benefits would include providing irrigation, reducing floods, and generating hydropower. However, there are also concerns about environmental impacts like loss of biodiversity and conflicts between states over sharing water resources. The first project under this plan to link the Ken and Betwa rivers was recently approved.
The document discusses the ambitious idea of interlinking rivers in India to transfer water from flood-prone areas to drought-prone regions. It notes the benefits would include providing irrigation, reducing floods, and generating hydropower. However, there are also concerns about environmental impacts like loss of biodiversity and conflicts between states over sharing water resources. The first project under this plan to link the Ken and Betwa rivers was recently approved.
On Monday, the Governments of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh signed an
agreement to link the Ken and Betwa rivers and irrigate the water-deficient Bundelkhand region (spread over both States) as well as provide electricity.
This is the first project of the National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers, through video conferencing/ virtual platform, which was also attended by Prime Minister Modi.
“This agreement will herald the beginning of inter-state cooperation to
implement the vision of Sh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee to carry water from areas that have surplus water to drought-prone and water deficit areas through the interlinking of rivers,” the statement issued by the Union Jal Shakti Ministry said.
The average rainfall in India is about 4,000 billion cubic meters, and most rainfall comes over a 4-month period between June to September. Adding to it that, the rainfall across the nation is not uniform. India also witnesses years of excess monsoon leading to floods, followed by below-average or late monsoons with droughts. This geographical and time variance in the availability of natural water versus the year- round demand for irrigation, drinking, and industrial water creates a demand-supply gap. Therefore, various solutions regarding this are being explored, among which the interlinking of rivers project has gained more traction these days.
What is the Interlinking of Rivers Project?
This idea has been around for almost half a century now. Back then, in the 1970s, Union Irrigation Minister Dr K L Rao mooted the idea of transferring surplus water from a river to a water-deficit area.
However, the idea did not get a push until the dawn of the 1980s, when the National Water Development Agency was established, through the National Perspective Plan. National Perspective Plan (NNP) for water resources development envisaged inter- basin water transfer in the country, comprised of two components:
(i) Himalayan Rivers Development; and
(ii) Peninsular Rivers Development.
Based on the NPP, the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) identified 30 river links—16 under the Peninsular Component and 14 under the Himalayan Component.
Nonetheless, nothing concrete was done on this issue and the plan remained a dead letter until it was revived by Former PM Vajpayee in the early 2000s. In 2002, it got a huge fillip when the government decided to study the feasibility and devised a concrete layout to implement it. However, with the change in central government. the project was put on hold owing to inter-state disputes and opposition from farmers, tribal groups, civil society and environmentalists.
In 2012, the Supreme Court directed the Ministry of Water Resources to constitute an experts committee to pursue the matter with the state governments. However, it left
the implementation of the project at the centre’s discretion citing it to be the
executive’s purview.
Thus, in accordance with the Supreme Court’s directive, the Central Government is making active strides in this arena.
What are the Benefits of Interlinking Rivers?
As mentioned already, India receives most of its annual rainfall during the four monsoon months of June to September, while the quantum of rain varies widely across different regions. If interlinking of rivers is implemented by connecting through canals, then such uneven water flow in different river basins will get balanced.
Furthermore, India will require about 450 million tonnes of foodgrains per annum to feed the population of over 1.5 billion in 2050. To meet this requirement, the country needs to expand its irrigation potential to 160 million hectares for all crops by 2050. This can be made possible through the interlinking of rivers.
Floods are a recurring feature, particularly in the large parts of the Ganga- Brahmaputra-Meghna basin, affecting Assam, Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. On the other extreme, a number of western and peninsular states such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu face recurring droughts. So, now this river linking project will transfer excess water from flood-ravaged states to water- scarce regions. which will eventually be providing irrigation to about 35 million hectares in water-scarce western and peninsular regions.
India currently stores only 30 days of rainfall, while developed nations strategically store 900 days’ worth of water demand in arid areas river basins and reservoirs. India also relies excessively on groundwater, which accounts for over 50 per cent of the irrigated area. Therefore, as India's water situation is already critical, it needs greater reliance on surface water and minimizes groundwater usage for sustainable development.
Furthermore, using connected rivers as navigation is a cleaner, low carbon footprint
form of transport infrastructure, particularly for ores and food grains, thereby an effective contribution to India’s needs infrastructure for logistics and movement of freight.
It will create food security, employment, boost crop output and farm income, and multiply benefits through backward and forward linkages. This river interlinking plan is https://the-pulse.in/the-ambitious-idea-of-river-interlinking-good-or-bad 3/5 4/2/2021 Mercury Reader
also expected to generate additional hydropower of about 34 GW.
Interlinking of rivers will increase India’s utilizable surface water by 25%. For example, currently, only a quarter of Brahmaputra’s renewable water resources are utilizable within the basin.
It may be noted here that the Interlinking of rivers is not new and has been attempted with success result in the past both in India and outside. Past examples in India include the Beas-Sutlej link and the Periyar-Vaigai link. International projects include Rhine– Main–Danube Canal, Illinois Waterway system, Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway etc.
Are There Any Concerns With Interlinking Rivers?
A major concern regarding the interlinking of rivers has been around the issues of ecology and the environment. Due to the interlinking of rivers, loss of biodiversity and forests downstream of a donor river will occur. According to a written reply given by the Minister of State for Jal Shakti Rattan Lal Kataria, out of the 6,017 ha of forest area coming under submergence of Daudhan dam of Ken Betwa Link Project, 4,206 ha of area lies within the core tiger habitat of Panna Tiger Reserve.
An international case in point is the Tagus-Segura link in Spain which has resulted in reduced flow in the Tagus and worsened the threats to endangered fish species. Also, unsustainable water use has also been observed in recipient river basins.
Furthermore, a major issue in India vis-a-vis river-linking is that water is a state subject. States that have surplus water are not ready to share it with other states resulting in a conflicting situation time and again. Even though the government is thinking of intra- state river-linking processes, a consensus has to be developed in this regard.
The Himalayan component calls for building dams in Bhutan, this will require some inter-link projects and so the neighbouring countries like Bangladesh may be affected by it. hence, This will need international collaboration to prevent any cause of potential tensions.
Furthermore, the interlinking of rivers also results in the displacement of tribals and other living beings in such areas, thereby necessitating a huge rehabilitation program. Moreover, a disruption is caused in the marine ecosystem as not enough freshwater would reach to the sea due to this program and can affect coastal economy also.
Interlinking of rivers has also come under criticism on the pretext that options such as watershed development, rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge, optimising existing infrastructure and cropping methods have not been explored fully. Thereby, a complete exhaustion of this needed to determine interlinking as the ultimate solution.
Last but not the least, The current cost of the project is Rs 11 lakh crore, twice the estimate of 2002, at Rs. 5.6 lakh crores.
The Way Forward
The National Perspective Plan for Interlinking of Rivers is certainly an ambitious move. Generally, 4-5 types of clearances are required for the interlinking of river projects. These are: Techno-economic (given by the Central Water Commission); Forest Clearance and Environmental clearance (Ministry of Environment & Forests); Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) Plan of Tribal Population (Ministry of Tribal Affairs) and Wildlife clearance (Central Empowered Committee).
Therefore, given the various concerns of ecology, human displacement etc, these clearances should be given only after making a detailed study on the effects of the project concerned. There should not be any undue fast-tracking of these procedures, as a lot is at stake. Similar, there should not be any undue delay as well. A broad consensus not just among the Indian states, but also with its International neighbours such as Bangladesh should be established, by taking them into confidence and making sure that there would be no simmering tensions, leading to crises.
Going forward, the benefits of the Ken Betwa project should be studied before initiating any other similar project to see the practical benefits and implications therein of the Ken Betwa. Thus, the Ken Betwa project should be used as a testing ground and then launch other peninsular projects as envisioned.
