India's River Power
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Image: Madhu Kapparat for Forbes India
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BEND IN THE RIVER The inlets where the water gets sucked in, desilted and pushed through a pipe to the turbines.RoR projects cause minimum disruption to surrounding human settlements. Despite its size, the Jhakri project has displaced only around 3,000 people
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Grey, not Green
RoR projects are said to be more sustainable from the environment point of view. However, activists say that this is not entirely true. According to Neeraj Vagholikar, a researcher who has studied the environmental impact of RoR projects, a case by case analysis is needed to understand the ecological damage caused. According to Vagholikar, RoR projects impact the life and flow of river systems. “In lower Subansiri project in Assam, for instance, our studies show that the dam proposed here would radically alter the flow of the river. As of now, the river flows at the rate of around 300 to 500 cumecs in winter, flowing uniformly through the day. But once the project is completed, we estimate that, in peak winter, the average water flow would be six cumecs for 20 hours and during the peaking power period when the water is released, it would flow at 2,500 cumecs for four hours!” This would lead to a volatile fluctuation in the flow of the river every day during winter. “This project will alternately starve and flood the river on a daily basis,” he says.
Beside, the problem with such projects in India is that many states have started building a cluster of projects around a river and these would significantly impact the normal course of the water as the water gets diverted repeatedly from one dam site after the other.
Of course, concerns have also been raised over the safety of the large dams. A report prepared by the Central Water Commission shows that as many as 29 large dams in the country have been declared as failed between 1917 and 2002. More than 60 percent of such dams are in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. As many as 114 dams are over 100 years old. The main causes behind the failure of the dams have been overflow and in some cases poor quality of construction.
“Dam safety is something that we are looking at seriously and that is why the Dam Safety Bill was put together and approved this year,” said an officer with the Central Water Commission.
The Right Course
Meanwhile, what’s the right course?
“If you want my personal opinion, I would say that we ought to look at building storage projects wherever possible as they are beneficial for irrigation and in flood control. RoR projects should be resorted to only where it is not feasible to have a storage project,” says N.C. Bansal, general manager of the Nathpa Jhakri project. According to an Asian Development Bank report, India has an assessed hydropower potential to the tune of 84,000 MW at 60 percent load factor; out of this only about 20 percent has been developed so far.
RoR projects, which can be quickly built, are crucial for India to bridge the gap between its hydro power potential and actual generation. In 2003, the government launched a 50,000 MW hydro power initiative. Under this scheme, detailed project reports (DPRs) are being prepared for 73 low-tariff schemes. Of these, 70 are located in the Brahmaputra, Indus and Ganga basins in the north and north-eastern part of the country. Most of these are RoR projects.
These projects go through a three-stage clearance process under which the central power sector companies such as National Hydro Power Corporation do the surveys and prepare pre-feasibility reports. At the second stage, more detailed investigations are carried out after obtaining clearances from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and approval of Public Investment Board and the Cabinet would be sought for construction.
This circuitous clearance route has also at times pitted the centre against states. For instance, when it was decided to put up the Khab Power Plant in Himachal Pradesh, SJVN, the agency given the charge of completing the feasibility study, had recommended building a storage dam. It felt that would have better utility, as it would also then be able to cater to the irrigation needs of the area and help in flood control. But the state government insisted on an RoR project.
“Finally the state government decided to hand over the execution of the project to its own department,” said an official concerned. The reason for that comes back to the problem of land acquisition and rehabilitation. The lack of an efficient rehabilitation and resettlement policy has hobbled the central government’s efforts to build large dams.
“When was the last time you heard about a major storage project being planned? Nowadays all the states want to go in for run of the river projects,” says a senior official with the Central Electricity Authority, a central body that grants clearances for power projects. According to him, although there are a handful of reservoir projects that are planned, there was a clamour for RoR projects. Officials in the ministry of power declined to talk about the issue.
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