• Home
  • About Us
  • Events
  • Submissions
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • NewsVoir
  • Newswire
  • Nasheman Urdu ePaper

Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

  • News & Politics
    • India
    • Indian Muslims
    • Muslim World
  • Culture & Society
  • Opinion
  • In Focus
  • Human Rights
  • Photo Essays
  • Multimedia
    • Infographics
    • Podcasts
You are here: Home / Archives for Rivers

River inter-linking to continue despite opposition, says Venkaiah Naidu

January 14, 2015 by Nasheman

River linking

New Delhi: Notwithstanding concerns raised by environmentalists, the Union government on Tuesday said it will take up inter-linking of rivers on a priority basis “come what may” and that any “obstacles” which may come in the way would be addressed or removed.

“Some of our environmentalist friends are raising voices. There will be voices in democracy, let there be. But, they have answers also … We have to take up river linking on a priority basis come what may,” Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said at a function to mark ‘India Water Week’ here.

“Whatever obstacles come, that has be addressed and they have to be removed,” he added.

Environmentalists have raised concerns over inter-linking of rivers, claiming that it would threaten the ac-aquatic life and has no hydrological and ecological soundness.

Mr. Naidu said developed countries are “giving us lessons and sermons” and added, “We have to first develop, then we can give lessons to others.”

Filed Under: Environment, India Tagged With: BJP, Indian Rivers Inter-link, River Linking, Rivers, Venkaiah Naidu, Water

'Tare Ganga Par'

January 8, 2015 by Nasheman

Dr. Tare is the head of the IIT consortium charged with developing a plan for the Ganga River Basin.

Dr. Tare is the head of the IIT consortium charged with developing a plan for the Ganga River Basin.

by Chicu Lokgariwar, India Water Portal

The Government of India has commissioned a consortium of IITs to clean up the Ganga. How are they going about it? A consortium of the seven Indian Institutes of Technology has been formed and charged with the preparation of a basin-wide management plan to restore the Ganga. What have they proposed for the river?

In an interview with Chicu Lokgariwar first published by India Water Portal, Dr. Tare explained the IIT consortium’s vision for the Ganga and the steps that they are taking to achieve it.

What is the vision of Ganga that you think will be achieved by the implementation of this plan?

Vision is obviously that we want aviral (uninterrupted flow) and nirmal (unpolluted flow) Ganga. It has to be considered as an ecological entity and it has to be realised that it is a geological entity as well. These are the four basic principles that we are based on.

I am interested in understanding what the efforts are (towards restoring the Ganga) and how each effort interlinks with the other. What is the approach you have taken?

See, we have essentially almost looked at all kinds of factors and stakeholders. But our approach was very non-traditional, in terms of actually consulting them or involving them.

So we may not have formally involved anybody. Where it was necessary, there we have. We have had several round table discussions with industries. We also organised formal meetings.

As part of our project, at the highest level we had the project management board. The constitution of this board was that all the directors of the seven IITs were there. And then we had three expert members in that. Then there were representatives of three ministries of the Joint Secretary level from MOEF, Water resources and human resources. We had created various thematic groups.

So common people may not have realised that we have consulted them. But we tried to capture their aspirations. Everyone gives suggestions to the Prime Minister through his website, his email. He forwards all those to me. And when I go through it, by and large we feel that ‘yes, we have considered everyone.’

What are the steps you recommend be taken to achieve ‘nirmal dhara’ ?

Just as you consider other things to be an industry, also consider sewage treatment as an industry. Measure the discharge of each drain that outfalls into the river or tributary, and tender for the treatment of that sewage. Get it measured by those who will be treating the sewage. Then you say, ‘this is the raw material I can give you. And from that sewage, you produce water and give it to me. I will buy that treated water for the next 15 years. Now what I do with that, whether I reuse is, is up to me.’

So my worry is not to build STP. Let that investment come from the private sector. I will only purchase the water. In this, the government does not need to invest, private parties will come forward for that. The local body will also get money from the reuse of this treated water. The STP operator will also get revenue.

Industries should recycle their water completely. But suppose a 100 units of effluent is produced, only 70-80 units of recycled water can be reused. The remaining balance should be made up by treated sewage. It is difficult to implement this by regulation and policing. For that, you need to do pricing. We need to decide to price fresh water at 1.5 to 2 times that of treated water. After this is done, you don’t have to apply any ceiling to the industry, or worry about a license, because all their water is getting recycled.

Some other things we are insisting upon are those that even if it is very small in quantity has a very high importance. Like religious pollution, whether it is flowers or puja material. We are saying that our religion also does not say that we should throw it here. We have tried to convince the spiritual leaders that it is your responsibility to tell society that this is a sin.

What about ‘aviral dhara’?

For aviral dhara we have categorically said that river’s continuity, longitudinal connectivity and environmental flows needs to be seen. So no structure should come up on the river or its tributaries which violates this. There is no question of giving environmental clearance to such projects. Don’t even ask MOEF to clear this. If at all this has to be done, it has to be a political decision at the highest level, in the larger national interest.

As for the existing dams, it is like this. You have already spoiled the river in an irreversible way by constructing Tehri Dam, by constructing Koteshwar, This is an irreversible damage that you have done. How can the Ganga be Aviral with Tehri there? So we are looking at all possible options. Business as usual to the very extreme step of dismantling Tehri. I can even think of a technical solution; I can provide a river pass through the reservoir. Like by using a tunnel, we take a road or a railway below the sea. So complete connectivity is maintained upstream and downstream of the reservoir.

Ganga Basin is the poorest in terms of productivity per unit of water. The landholdings are very small. Our agricultural GDP is only 7 to 8%. And 50% workforce is working in this.

So one challenge is how can we increase the productivity per unit of water. That small farmers cannot do. Then there are two things. Either we say, ‘okay, these are small farmers. Let them be there’.

But then I create a system wherein he is supported in terms of technology or whatever. Call it a cooperative society or contract farming, whatever you want to call it. Second model is, you buy the land from them all. And give it to some big entity, he will manage the whole thing.

What are the challenges you face in realising your vision of the Ganga?

The most important challenge is, we have many actors. All actors say that Ganga is very important. Everyone wants to be connected with the Ganga. But everybody is sitting in different directions, and they see from their perspective. The main challenge is how to bring all the players to one side.

We have defined all actors – state government and central government. Within the government, politicians, bureaucrats, technocrats all have a different residence time. This is what we need to align. We have looked at why things have failed. Our assessment is that all the actors have different ‘residence times’. For example, the secretary has a post duration of not more than three years. So he is not interested in anything that spins for greater than three years. This is the same for politicians.

For that we have said that we need to move from NGRBA, we need a separate entity which is above all the ministries. We have proposed a commission- The national river Ganga basin management commission. We have proposed an Act, the national river ganga basin management Bill. The commission will be created through this bill. Then the commission will not be controlled by the government. The main purpose of the commission is to be a custodian of the Ganga basin.

We have done whatever work we have done based on whatever information was available. But we still believe that much of it is not scientific. Because we just don’t have that micro-level data.

There has to be a systematic drive. We should move away from a centralised government-controlled data collection to decentralised community-based data collection. Involve the community.

And what are the opportunities you see?

See the opportunity is that if you actually maintain Ganga and Ganga basin, our economic growth rate will actually go up. And that’s the sustainability issue. What Modi is saying that if you really implement the spirit of zero effect and zero defect..isn’t it? So I think we have the biggest opportunity. We have talent, we have manpower, and we have good climatic conditions. Such climatic conditions are not to be found anywhere else for work like this.

Even if we are poor, in some things our standards should be better than other countries. Our spiritual and cultural standards are much higher than any other country, right? So with river-related, water-related, our standards have to be much higher because we are very susceptible.

Dr. Tare is the head of the IIT consortium charged with developing a plan for the Ganga River Basin.

Filed Under: Environment, India Tagged With: Contamination, Hydropower, Pollution, Rivers, Water

River linking could alter rainfall, hit monsoons, warns expert

December 6, 2014 by Nasheman

River linking

Kolkata: Criticising the interlinking of rivers (ILR) project of the Indian government, a leading geologist and environmental expert Friday warned the move could disrupt rainfall pattern which could be a significant issue in the wake of climate change.

“There is a major disruption of ecosystem. In view of climate change there is a possibility of change in pattern of rainfall,” V. Rajamani, an emeritus professor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, told IANS here on the sidelines of a programme.

He was addressing students on climate change in India at a lecture organized by Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology, at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology here.

Rajamani, who has repeatedly expressed his reservations about the project, explained: “You may be damming a river, but the river might not have water if you don’t return the water to the sea.

“The marine water system will be disturbed and the physical process for the rainfall will be affected. You may not even get the monsoon.”

The ambitious ILR initiative which received a boost by the Narendra Modi-led government has 30 river-linking projects under its ambit and includes both peninsular and Himalayan rivers.

Union Water Resource, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Uma Bharti has recently said ILR will raise irrigation capacity and will be taken up on mission mode.

However, Rajamani sounded a word of caution.

“Natural system works with natural laws’ give and take. How do you know it works? Americans are regretting they went for technology and now they are realising it is not working and now we are doing the same thing,” Rajamani said.

(IANS)

Filed Under: Environment, India Tagged With: Indian Rivers Inter-link, Rivers, V Rajamani, Water

How will the Ramganga flow?

November 26, 2014 by Nasheman

Ramganga

by Chicu Lokgariwar, India Water Portal

Since the 1970s, the Ramganga has been governed by dam releases. Now an ambitious project seeks to restore environmental flows in the river.

We sat on a charpoy in Agwaanpur and talked of flood warning systems for the Ramganga. Of all the places I had visited, Agwaanpur, probably due to its urban nature, was the only one which boasted a rudimentary system. The police would inform the Maulvi that a flood release was expected, and he would repeat the warning using the loudspeaker normally used to summon people to prayer.

Mohammed Rahiz seemed unimpressed. “What’s the point of a warning”?, asked the handsome grey-bearded farmer. And his next sentence convinced me that he was right. “Theek hain, If we are within earshot, we get up from our work on the farms and come here. What about our fields? They can’t get up and run away, can they”? And then he went on to explain why these floods were so very devastating.

This is due to a change in what are known as ‘environmental flows’. Environmental flows are the varying levels of water in a river that are needed to maintain the river ecosystem. This means year-round deep water pools for dolphins, shallows during the time fish spawn, and floods to inundate wetlands and floodplains and to bless the farmers.

The farmers are well-used to floods during the four months of monsoon. The Chaumasa, as it’s called, is when farmers allow themselves the luxury of slowing down. This is their time to take stock, plan and gear up for the all-important Rabi or winter crop. The farmers that live the Gangetic basin do not approach any river at this time. As soon as the floods recede, exposing their fields covered by a coating of  fresh silt, they begin to till their land. It is here that the Ramganga deals with them unfairly. Frequently, floods occur after the seed has been sown, wiping out their investment.

But let’s not blame the Ramganga.

The fault lies with the dams and barrages constructed upstream of it. Simply put, there are three major changes that the dams do to the flow regime:

  1. Change in time: Water is impounded in the dam and released when it reaches the danger level. This means that rather than a steady stream of high flows throughout the Chaumasa, water flows in a series of unexpected pulses.
  2. Change in amount: This storage and release means that the water reaching a point is not just the runoff at that point for that period, but accumulated runoff for many days or weeks. Floods are thus noticeably higher than they were pre-dam.
  3. Lack of connectivity: Dams quite literally set up walls across rivers. Most famously, they impact the migration of fish and create isolated populations which die out due to inbreeding. However, this damming also impedes the movement of silt and sand. Decreasing the amount of silt in the river, also known as its silt load, changes the way in which a river behaves. A decreased silt load makes it more likely to erode banks, which is bad news for farmers.

This is made even worse because there is nothing that the farmers can do to counteract the god-like powers of the dam authorities.

The impact of dams on small farmers

Consider Razia, a landless farmers in Agwaanpur who is doing the best she can to make the most of her limited resources. With a blind father-in-law and a deceased husband, Razia is the head of her household. Every year, she pays Rs.10,000 to lease a bigha of land. Earlier, she would do Paalej farming- the planting of cucurbits. When unpredictable fluctuations in both river flows and market prices made this too much of a gamble, Razia changed her strategy. She saw that planting eucalyptus and poplar for sale was the new big craze in the area.

However, she cannot afford to wait for 5-10 years before securing a return on her investment. Instead, she went to the Forest Department and obtained eucalyptus seeds for free. She has now planted a nursery, and will sell 1 year-old saplings to the farmers.

A seemingly smart plan with a sure income, low investment, quick returns, and a ready market but one that isn’t certain by any means. No matter how hard she works and how intelligently she plans, Razia cannot predict when the floods will come and if they will wash away her carefully tended seedlings.

The technocrats’ point of view

The impacts of a river development scheme on the farmers of the same river basin seem to be secondary to those of far-off command areas as far as planners are concerned. The Ramganga is said to fulfil its objectives since it supplies adequate water to the Upper Ganga Canal command system. The devastation to the farmers who have traditionally lived along its banks is ‘the price of progress.’

Climate change is playing a role here too. Er. Ravindra Kumar, retired official of the UP Irrigation Department confirms that since 2010, increasingly erratic rainfall has led to unplanned releases. Regrettably, this has not inspired the UP Irrigation Department o reassess the value of the dam or look for alternate means of functioning. Instead, Er.Kumar says that the adopted strategy to deal with a future of more intense rainfall is the building of embankments at vulnerable places. Unfortunately, we have seen time and again that embankments only worsen flood situations but our state irrigation departments seem to have missed reading those same reports.

To restore the Ramganga

There is some help on the way. The World Wildlife Fund for India has begun an ambitious plan of demonstrating on the Ramganga that environmental flow releases are possible on a dammed river.  This entails working on several strategies at once.

  • We need to quantify what we are speaking of when we say ‘environmental flow releases for the Ramganga’. This means looking at historical flows, at the flows (amount and time) needed for fulfilling the river’s various functions including landforming, sustaining ecosystems, and sustaining riparian communities. This is a multi-disciplinary and participatory research exercise, which is being carried out now using a modified version of the Building Block Methodology. While intricate, the process is fairly straightforward.
  • The truly difficult part of it is what happens next. Somehow, WWF needs to talk with two state governments and get them to sanction releases as per this environmental flow requirement. Now, India is notoriously difficult when it comes to river-based data. It seems almost naive to enter into a dialogue over modifying dam releases so as to suit a flow regime determined upon by a motley bunch of academics and environmentalists. This, incredibly, is being done by means of sustained dialogue and negotiations.
  • And finally, comes the issue of ‘freeing up’ more water for the river. To do this, the organisation is promoting and demonstrating efficient water use for agriculture within the Ramganga basin. This choice of location appears to be for the purpose of confining activities within the basin. However, since the water abstracted from the river by the dam is fed into the Upper Ganga Canal network and so out of the basin, water-use efficiency should logically be demonstrated in the canal command area. This is a minor point, however. Both the command area and the Ramganga basin are part of the larger Ganga basin, and lessons from one are easily transferable to the other.

This does raise an important question, however.

How will this effort change the perception of agricultural water demand? In other words, how will assessing the environmental flow requirements of the Ramganga convince the dam authorities that less water needs to be abstracted from the river for the canal system?

That depends on WWF’s capacity for negotiation.

Mohammed Rahiz, Razia Begum and countless other farmers are likely waiting for the results of this with bated breath.

Filed Under: Environment, In Focus Tagged With: Agriculture, Barrages, Bay of Bengal, Dams, Ramganga, Reservoirs, Rivers, UP, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

KNOW US

  • About Us
  • Corporate News
  • FAQs
  • NewsVoir
  • Newswire
  • Realtor arrested for NRI businessman’s murder in Andhra Pradesh

GET INVOLVED

  • Corporate News
  • Letters to Editor
  • NewsVoir
  • Newswire
  • Realtor arrested for NRI businessman’s murder in Andhra Pradesh
  • Submissions

PROMOTE

  • Advertise
  • Corporate News
  • Events
  • NewsVoir
  • Newswire
  • Realtor arrested for NRI businessman’s murder in Andhra Pradesh

Archives

  • May 2025 (6)
  • April 2025 (50)
  • March 2025 (35)
  • February 2025 (34)
  • January 2025 (43)
  • December 2024 (83)
  • November 2024 (82)
  • October 2024 (156)
  • September 2024 (202)
  • August 2024 (165)
  • July 2024 (169)
  • June 2024 (161)
  • May 2024 (107)
  • April 2024 (104)
  • March 2024 (222)
  • February 2024 (229)
  • January 2024 (102)
  • December 2023 (142)
  • November 2023 (69)
  • October 2023 (74)
  • September 2023 (93)
  • August 2023 (118)
  • July 2023 (139)
  • June 2023 (52)
  • May 2023 (38)
  • April 2023 (48)
  • March 2023 (166)
  • February 2023 (207)
  • January 2023 (183)
  • December 2022 (165)
  • November 2022 (229)
  • October 2022 (224)
  • September 2022 (177)
  • August 2022 (155)
  • July 2022 (123)
  • June 2022 (190)
  • May 2022 (204)
  • April 2022 (310)
  • March 2022 (273)
  • February 2022 (311)
  • January 2022 (329)
  • December 2021 (296)
  • November 2021 (277)
  • October 2021 (237)
  • September 2021 (234)
  • August 2021 (221)
  • July 2021 (237)
  • June 2021 (364)
  • May 2021 (282)
  • April 2021 (278)
  • March 2021 (293)
  • February 2021 (192)
  • January 2021 (222)
  • December 2020 (170)
  • November 2020 (172)
  • October 2020 (187)
  • September 2020 (194)
  • August 2020 (61)
  • July 2020 (58)
  • June 2020 (56)
  • May 2020 (36)
  • March 2020 (48)
  • February 2020 (109)
  • January 2020 (162)
  • December 2019 (174)
  • November 2019 (120)
  • October 2019 (104)
  • September 2019 (88)
  • August 2019 (159)
  • July 2019 (122)
  • June 2019 (66)
  • May 2019 (276)
  • April 2019 (393)
  • March 2019 (477)
  • February 2019 (448)
  • January 2019 (693)
  • December 2018 (736)
  • November 2018 (572)
  • October 2018 (611)
  • September 2018 (692)
  • August 2018 (667)
  • July 2018 (469)
  • June 2018 (440)
  • May 2018 (616)
  • April 2018 (774)
  • March 2018 (338)
  • February 2018 (159)
  • January 2018 (189)
  • December 2017 (142)
  • November 2017 (122)
  • October 2017 (146)
  • September 2017 (178)
  • August 2017 (201)
  • July 2017 (222)
  • June 2017 (155)
  • May 2017 (205)
  • April 2017 (156)
  • March 2017 (178)
  • February 2017 (195)
  • January 2017 (149)
  • December 2016 (143)
  • November 2016 (169)
  • October 2016 (167)
  • September 2016 (137)
  • August 2016 (115)
  • July 2016 (117)
  • June 2016 (125)
  • May 2016 (171)
  • April 2016 (152)
  • March 2016 (201)
  • February 2016 (202)
  • January 2016 (217)
  • December 2015 (210)
  • November 2015 (177)
  • October 2015 (284)
  • September 2015 (243)
  • August 2015 (250)
  • July 2015 (188)
  • June 2015 (216)
  • May 2015 (281)
  • April 2015 (306)
  • March 2015 (297)
  • February 2015 (280)
  • January 2015 (245)
  • December 2014 (287)
  • November 2014 (254)
  • October 2014 (185)
  • September 2014 (98)
  • August 2014 (8)

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in