Sunita Narain: See the light
If power projects senselessly compromise the environment and people's livelihood, they will never be allowed to come up
That India desperately needs to generate more power is beyond question. The country has the lowest per capita consumption of electricity in the world; this, when we know that access to energy correlates with development, and, indeed, with economic growth.
Let us not dismiss this need for energy as a simple issue of intra-national equity, that is, the rich use too much, while the poor do not have enough. This may be true for other natural resources, but energy scarcity is more or less all around. Data show the country’s energy intensity has been falling — we do more with each unit of energy produced. The reason is not hard to see. India’s energy prices are among the highest in the world and they do pinch industry and the domestic consumer. So, saving is part of the energy game. This is not to say we must not do more to cut energy use and be more efficient. But there are limits to efficiency.
Why am I stating the obvious? The reason is that even though the country knows it needs more power, what it does not realise is that it will not get this power through conventional ways.
Just consider what is happening in the country. There are widespread protests against building major power projects, from thermal to hydel, and now nuclear. At the site of the coal power plant in Sompeta in Andhra Pradesh, the police had to open fire on some 10,000 protesters, killing two of them. In the Alphonso-growing Konkan region, farmers are up in arms against a 1,200 Mw thermal plant, which, they say, will damage their crop. In Chhattisgarh, people are fighting against scores of such projects, as these will take away their land or water. The list of such protests is long even if one does not consider the fact that most of the coal needed to run these projects is under forests, and many mines are contested and unavailable.
Hydel projects are no different. Environmentalists are protesting against the massive numbers of projects planned on the Ganga, which will virtually see the river dry up over long stretches. The Assam government is asking for a review of the hydel projects in upstream Arunachal Pradesh because it believes these are resulting in floods. Assam’s 2,000 Mw Subansiri project is in trouble because state-appointed experts say the dam could have serious impact on downstream areas. The two yet-to-be-built nuclear projects — the 6,000 Mw Jasapara project in Bhavnagar and the 9,900 Mw Jaitapur project in Konkan — are already facing enormous anger from the people.
We are not seeing the big picture as yet. We still believe these countless struggles are minor hiccups. But I believe not. As I have argued in the past, this is the environmentalism of the very poor; people across the country are fighting for survival. They know their poverty will only be replaced with more destitution if and when these projects are built.
So, it is time we accepted this fact. It is time we accepted that many of the projects that are being planned or proposed will not be built. The availability of land and water will be the real constraints on growth. So, what do we do?
One, we need a law that makes basic energy a fundamental right of all Indians, like the right to employment, education and, now, food. This will ensure people are empowered to demand energy as a right and that the state has to share whatever it has with everyone. This will create real conditions for generating energy in new and different ways. It could be decentralised and local or even big and grid-connected. This will give every community a real stake in power development.
Two, India must accept it cannot build all the projects it has planned. It has to prioritise projects taking into consideration the cumulative capacity of the environment. In other words, it needs to assess how much water can be taken away for hydel projects while ensuring natural flow in rivers at all times. It must allow only those projects that do not compromise the environment and people’s livelihood. Currently, this is not being done. Every stream and every district is up for grabs. In Arunachal Pradesh, there are 10 projects on every stream; some 150 MoUs have been signed, thereby adding to some 50,000 Mw of power generation (roughly one-third of the country’s current installed power). Just one block of Chhattisgarh, Dabra, has nine thermal projects in a 10-km radius. MoUs have been signed for 49 projects in Janjgir-Champa district of Chhattisgarh. This madness must stop.
Three, India needs to enhance the capacity of environmental regulators so that they take correct and clear decisions. Projects need more careful scrutiny, and the assessment must have credibility in people’s eyes.
We must first realise the need to change the game of development. Only then will there be light.