Ken-Betwa interlinking project likely to have disastrous consequences

Project is a part of PM's development package for drought-prone Bundelkhand region

Over two decades have passed since the Ken-Betwa interlinking project, which seeks to bring “surplus” water from Ken in Madhya Pradesh (MP) into the parched Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh (UP), was conceived. On March 22 — World Water Day — the two states signed an agreement to implement this project.
 
This agreement ignores years of expert advice — including from within the government — that the project is ecologically damaging and expensive. Its estimated cost is Rs 38,000 crore. “No water project was ever completed on time. This is bound to increase in cost to up to Rs 50,000 crore,” said a senior official requesting anonymity.
 
More to the point, earlier river interlinking projects have failed. One is the Narmada-Shipra, inaugurated in November 2012 to address the desertification of Malwa. The second is the Krishna-Godavari, inaugurated March 2016, to address the irrigation and drinking water needs of Andhra Pradesh’s Rayalaseema region. Both are not strictly interlinking plans but lift irrigation projects involving pumping water from one river — the Narmada and Godavari in this case — to another with less water. Interlinking involves stopping the flow of water, raising its level and directing it in one direction using gravity.
 
Neither project has been a success. “The Shipra project is a total farce. I have personally visited it and can confirm that it has achieved nothing. Transfer of water is carried out as a ceremonial activity there when some VIP arrives,” said Manoj Mishra, convenor of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan, an advocacy campaign to revive the Yamuna.
 
In the Krishna river, too, he said, there were no noticeable gains — instead, the project saw a major destruction of fisheries.
 
“There is no feedback on the success of these projects. No scientific study has been done. All implications are not immediate since water is not an assured source,” said A K Gosain, professor of civil engineering at IIT Delhi.
 
According to U K Chaudhary, professor of civil engineering at Banaras Hindu University, such projects fail on account of a poor understanding of basic facts. When interlinking occurs naturally, the smaller river meets the bigger one at the point of erosion as if sealing a wound. The confluence point of Ganga and Yamuna, for instance, keeps shifting as the pockets of erosion move. In a man-made project, this point remains stationary. “Projects such as Narmada-Shipra and Godavari-Krishna don’t take into account where these erosion pockets lie and at what angle the small river should meet them. Both location and technology are crucial. They don’t even know the groundwater recharge situation, which is another important factor in the confluence of two rivers,” he said.
 
In the Narmada-Shipra project, for instance, the water has to be pumped from a lower altitude (the Narmada) to a higher one — the Shipra is on the Malwa plateau. Doing so requires machines running permanently on electricity, which has raised operating costs.
 
The Krishna-Godavari project, meanwhile, has been unofficially shelved owing to the high costs involved.
 
The Ken-Betwa project does not involve pumping water but the construction of a large dam on the Ken river and a tunnel inside the Panna Tiger Reserve core area. A forest advisory committee (FAC) report had said more than 18,00,000 large trees will have to be cut inside the park and an equal number outside for this.
 
As far back as May 2017, FAC had said constructing a dam within the tiger reserve was not the best option given the area’s rich biodiversity and that it would be a setback to tiger conservation efforts. Ken, one of the least polluted Yamuna tributaries, is the park’s lifeline. Off the record, officialdom seems to agree. “The district collector has said that the project will destroy Panna,” a former water ministry official said. Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee has opposed its wildlife clearance, too.
 
The Jal Shakti ministry has said that the strategy to mitigate the impact on the tiger reserve has been entrusted to the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun and is in its final stage. This involves creating three wildlife sanctuaries — two in MP, one in UP — according to a government statement.
 

The basis of the project is that Ken has “surplus” water. An August 2005 agreement between the Centre and the governments of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh claims to provide an annual irrigation of 10,62,000 hectare — 8,11,000 in MP and the rest in UP and drinking water to 6.2 million people.
 
But the hydrology data to back this claim is not available. “The scientific data has not passed public scrutiny and the government has said it cannot make it public,” Himanshu Thakkar of South Asia Network of Dams and Rivers said, adding, “The evidence on the ground suggests that there is no surplus water.” 
 
Thakkar also contested the argument that it would be good for drought-prone Bundelkhand, since the project will export water to the upper Betwa — which is outside Bundelkhand.
 
Various expert committees (including the FAC) have said alternative, decentralised ways of improving water availability have not been explored sufficiently. This would include rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge through check dams, moisture conservation, reuse of water, treatment of polluted water and demand side measures.
 
 “Only India and China are exploring options of interlinking rivers and hydropower...Most countries have given up the idea since the cost far outweighs the benefits,” said Siddharth Agarwal, environmental researcher and founder of Veditum India, a Kolkata-based environment-focused research foundation.