1. Interlinking of Rivers: Why it won’t work
South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People

2. Stated objectives To take water from surplus to deficit areas
To solve the problems of ALL drought and floods permanently
President on Aug 14, 2005 address to the nation: “I feel that it has the promise of freeing the country from the endless cycle of floods and droughts. “

3. Stated Benefits
Flood Control (40 m ha area and 260 m people saved from floods that leads to damages of Rs 2400 crore/year)
Drought proofing (86 m people in 14 states, 116 districts saved)
Relief of 1200 crore per year from floods/ drought damages
Irrigation: 35 m ha
Hydropower generation MW installed capacity
Foodgrains production: 400 m t by 2020
70 lpcd water to every citizen
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4. List of proposed Links Peninsular Component
Mahanadi (Manibhadra)– Godavari (d/s)
Godavari (Inchampalli) – Krishna (Nagarjunsagar)
Godavari (Inchampalli Low Dam) – Krishna (Nagarjunsagar Tail Pond)
Godavari (Polavaram) – Krishna (Vijaywada)
Krishna (Almatti) – Pennar
Krishna (Srisilam) – Pennar
Krishna (Nagarjunsagar) – Pennar (Somasila)
Pennar (Somasila) – Cauvery (Grand Anicut)
Cauvery (Kattalai) – Vaigai – Gundar
Ken – Betwa
Parbati – Kalisindh – Chambal
Par – Tapi – Narmada
Damanganga – Pinjal
Bedti – Varda
Netravati – Hemavati
Pamba – Achankovil – Vaippar
Himalayan Component
Kosi – Mechi
Kosi – Ghagra
Gandak – Ganga
Ghagra – Yamuna
Sarda – Yamuna
Yamuna – Rajasthan
Rajasthan – Sabarmati
Chunar – Sone Barrage
Sone Dam – Southern Tributaries of Ganga
Brahmputra – Ganga (MSTG)
Brahmputra – Ganga (JTF) (ALT)
Farakka – Sunderbans
Ganga – Damodar – Subernrekha
Subernrekha – Mahanadi

5. Main Features 30 River Links Involving 37 Rivers
How much additional water? 300 BCM (President of India speech on May 11, 2005)
No of reservoirs: 60 (Rainer Horig)
Estimated cost: Rs crores
Estimated submergence
ha (Rainer Horig: ha for canals and ha for reservoirs)
Estimated displacement:
0.45 M (official document)
3.47 M (Rainer Horig)

6. Some basic Questions Is the need for the ILR established?
Has it been established if some basins are surplus or deficits?
Definitions of Surplus and Deficit
Is any basin really water surplus?
Question on hydrologic viability
Is the feasibility of the proposal established?
Is the Optimality of the proposal established? Is it the least cost option?
Has the social, environmental viability been established?
Is the economic and financial viability of the project established?
Is ILR feasible in current constitutional set up?
Is the project desirable?

7. Can ILR solve flood “problem”?
According to President (speech on ) flood affects 8 major basins, 40 m ha and 260 m people
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.
River
Average flood discharge(cumecs)
Water to be diverted through ILR canal(cumecs)
BRAHMAPUTRA
60,000
1,500 (2.5%)
GANGA
50,000
1,000 (2.0%)
(Figures thanks to SG Vombatkere, ILR figures from official website:
ILR can clearly not help solve flood problem

8. What about these floods of 2005, Mr President?
The Central Gujarat region that experienced serious floods were to receive MORE water from Paar-Tapi Narmada Link proposal.
Mumbai that experienced unprecedented floods was to receive more water from Damanganga Pinjal link proposal.
The Krishna basin areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka were to receive more water from other basins.
The ILR could have done nothing about the floods in Sutlej basin.
And what about the floods of Cauvery basin in October 2005?

9. What do experts say about ILR and Floods?
Dr. Bharat Singh, Professor Emeritus at the Water Resources Development Training Centre at the IIT, Rourkee, and Member of the National Commission for Integrated Water Resources Development Plan ( ), has said, “any water resources engineer will immediately discard the idea of the inter-linking of rivers as a flood control measure” (A big dream of little logic, The Hindustan Times, 9 March 2003).
John Bricoe, Senior Water Resources Expert of the World Bank has said, "River linking per se will do little to reduce flood damage since the size of the link canals would usually be miniscule compared to flood flows." Junaid Ahmad, Senior Manager, Social Development, World Bank was also said ILR won’t help flood problems.

10. Can ILR help the drought areas?
According to President (speech on ) 86 m people, 14 states and 116 districts are affected by drought annually
Can ILR benefit all drought prone areas
YES says President of India
NO if you care to look at the map and topography
Do we have other options for these areas?
YES
Do we have evidence that such options can work?
Hundreds of examples (e.g. Alwar, Ralegaon, Sukhomajri, many others)
Have these options been explored? NO

11. Links will consume, and not generate power
PUMPED LIFT OF WATER
Ganga-Subarnarekha (G-S) 60 m
Subarnarekha-Mahanadi (S-M) 48 m
Godavari-Krishna (G-K) m
Need for 3,400 MW of dedicated power generation
[Source : ]

12. Some Social Impacts
Dams: Submergence, displacement (see earlier slide)
The link canals, “will be m wide and more than 6 m deep.” Total canal length 14,000 km. Land for canals alone at least 2,100 sq km (210,000 ha). (
Downstream areas: Drying up of rivers, destruction of biodiversity, increase of salinity ingress, death of fisheries and fisherfolks’ livelihoods, stoppage of groundwater recharge
Deforestation: destruction of livelihood for surrounding population, large number of environmental impacts
Loss of opportunity of development for the deprived people
Permanent loss of rivers and environmental resources

13. Poor Quality studies of NWDA
NWDA claim
Ground reality/ discrepancy
Mahanadi is surplus basin
Orissa says it has no water to export
Godavari is surplus basin
AP says it no water to export
Damanganga water can be exported to Pinjal
Gujarat does not agree
Tapi has surplus water
MP and Maharashtra disagree
Ken Betwa Link proposal includes five dam proposals
FR has details of only one dam
KBL FR has population figures based on 1981 population and cost figures based on 1995 costs
When latest figures are available
KBL FR agrees substantial portion of Panna Tiger Reserve would be
However, FR says there will be no impact on the wildlife
impactedParbati Kalisindh Chambal Link includes ten dams
FR has details of only three of them

14. Ken Betwa Link FR Ken Betwa Cultivable land 57.08% 67.88%
When Ken has floods, so has Betwa, when Betwa faces water scarcity, so does Ken. Both are part of Bundelkhand.
Use of wrong, outdated and manipulated data to prove that Ken is Surplus and Betwa is deficit basin.
Ken
Betwa
Cultivable land
57.08%
67.88%
Cultivable land in Upper Basin
46.26%
65.05
Irrigable land in Upper basin
42.91%
55.47%
Water required to irrigate 1 Ha
5327 cum
6157 cu m
Water Export(+) or Import(-)
(-)2427 mcm
mcm
Surplus (+) / deficit (-)
5085 mcm
(-)1762 mcm
Projected water required to irrigate 1 ha
5200 mcm

15. UP has strong objections
Principal Secretary (Irrigation),UP has said in official meeting, “Ken Basin is not a surplus basin and if water is transferred from this basin there might be unrest in the Budelkhand region.”
“The area presently irrigated south of Lalitpur and Jhansi districts will get affected dur to KB Link project.”
“The investment made by UP on Rajghat and Matatila dam will become waste”
“The hydropower generation of Rajghat and Matatila Power Houses would be hampered”

16. Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal Link
Totally Ten dams are planned as part of this link, but info of only three included in the FR
Socio-Economic and Environmental impacts study yet to be done and no information about this in the FR
ha will be submerged in three dams as given in FR. For the other 7 dams, about ha to be submerged. In addition, at least ha land will be required for canals
Social impacts based on 1991 census figures in 2005
FR failed to establish the need for the PKC link

17. Salient features of Polavaram
Location of Dam
Near Polavaram village in W Godavari dist, 42 km u/s of the existing Cotton Barrage
Hydrology: Rainfall
1023 mm
Catchment area
sq km
Design flood
cumecs
Available runoff at Polavaram dam site (Assessed by NWDA from computed series of to 1980 –81
75% dependability
80170 MCM
Reservoir data: FRL
45.72 m
MDDL
41.15 m
Gross storage at FRL
194.6 TMC (5511 MCM)
Live storage
75.2 TMC
Water Utilisation; Diversion to Krishna
84.7 TMC (incl evaporation)
Irrigation: LMC & RMC
TMC
Water supply to Vizag
23.44 TMC
Demands of Chhattisgarh
1.5 TMC
Demands of Orissa
5 TMC
Godavari Delta demand
TMC
TOTAL
TMC
Irrigation: Culturable command area Ha
Net Area to be irrigated Ha
Annual irrigation Ha
Power
12x80 MW installed capacity

18. Polavaram: Serious implications
Submergence: 276 villages, over two lac people including villages in Orissa and Chhatisgarh, mostly adivasi population
Human Rights violations
Public Hearing violations
EIA violations
No R&R plan
Submergence of deposits of Chromite, graphite, iron ore and coal bearing area
3 705 ha Forest land under submergence
Submergence of parts of Papi Hills WLS
Environmental clearance under suspicious circumstance
Environmental clearance without forest clearance

19. National Commission about ILR-1
HIMALAYAN COMPONENT:
“The Himalayan Component data are not freely available but on basis of published information it appears that this component may not be feasible for the period of review up to the year 2050.” (Executive Summary, pp (ix))
Further it says about the Himalayan links, “the costs of construction and environmental problems would be enormous. These links should only be taken up if and when they are considered unavoidable in national interest.” The Commission also noted, “On the basis of published information, the commission is of the view that the Himalayan component would require more detailed study using systems analysis techniques.” (p )

20. National Commission about ILR-2
PENINSULAR COMPONENT
“As regards east flowing peninsular rivers, the studies indicate that based on mean annual flows except for Krishna (if irrigation intensity is adopted at a rather high 45 %), Cauvery and Vaigai, the balances are positive in other cases. The shortage in Cauvery is 12 % of gross demand and that in Vaigai 16 %. These shortages result from increasing the present irrigated area to 1.4 times in case of Cauvery and 1.6 times in case of Vaigai and assuming return flows at 60 % of the imbalance. In case the return flow is taken as 80 % of the imbalance, there is no shortage in Krishna and those in Cauvery and Vaigai are reduced to 5 and 8 % respectively. Thus, there seems to be no imperative necessity for massive water transfer. The assessed needs of the basins could be met from full development and efficient utilization of intra-basin resources…” (Executive Summary, pp (ix))
Par-Tapi-Narmada Link proposal: “Taking the entire system, the cost of water delivered is high and can hardly be borne by the farmers at prevailing agricultural prices. The irrigation rates may have to be very heavily subsidized which is not in conformity with current thinking. It is felt that these links should be deferred till the impact of the SSP is seen and need for additional water is clearly established.”
Netravati-Hemavati link: “The cost is rather high due to requirement of lift.”

21. Some Eminent persons on ILR:
Bharat Singh: “There really seems to be no convincing argument or vital national interest which can justify undertaking this mammoth undertaking”.
Jairam Ramesh, Member of Parliament said in a Short Duration Debate in Parliament on July 26, 2005, “To imagine that we are going to be able to solve our annual problems of flood and drought by a massive programme of inter-linking of rivers, in my view, there would be no greater calamity than massive inter-linking of rivers.”

22. Do we have options? Flood Management Drought Management Water Supply
Agriculture
Irrigation
Food Production
Power

23. Options for Power
Better performance of existing infrastructure (see next slide for performance of existing hydro)
Reduce T&D losses
End Use efficiency (pumps, CFLs)
Demand Side Management
According to former power minister, the potential in India for this is equivalent to additional installed capacity of MW
Peak management: Most big hydro storage for peaking pwoer
Generation options: Small Hydro, wind, biomass, solar
Small hydro potential is MW as per CEA, hardly 15% of that has been exploited
Pump storage potential in existing storage projects

24. Advocacy for large hydro
There is strong push for large hydro projects today, as if large hydro projects are good in themselves.
In fact installed capacity of large hydro has increased at a compound growth rate of 4.35% per annum during , HIGHER than all other power sub-sectors.
There is little attempt for credible assessment of performance of large hydro. How have they performed?

25. Diminishing Returns from Large Hydro
As can be seen from the chart here, the Million Units energy generated from large hydro projects has been almost continuously falling over the last eleven years.
The fall from to is huge 31%.
There are many reasons for this, use of increasing large hydro to provide peaking capacity is surely not one of them to the best of our information.

26. Monsoon above normal in majority of these years
Monsoon Rainfall
1994
110 %
1995
100 %
1996
103 %
1997
102 %
1998
105 %
1999
96 %
2000
92 %
2001
91 %
2002
81 %
2003
2004
87 %
2005

27. What is going on? Role of President of India Supreme Court of India
WB, other international forces
NDA govt
UPA govt
MWR, NWDA
States, state level politicians
Bangladesh, Nepal
Media
Academics, experts
Communities and Civil Society

28. THANK YOU Read “Dams, Rivers & People” www.sandrp.in cwaterp@vsnl.com
November 14, 2005