Context: On December 25, 2024, the Prime Minister of India laid the foundation stone for the Ken-Betwa River Link Project, which aims to solve the water scarcity in the Bundelkhand region that covers parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Interlinking of rivers is necessary to overcome the anomaly of uneven temporal and spatial distribution of rainfall in the country. It is also necessary to remove the regional imbalances in the country.
Relevance of the Topic:Mains: River interlinking: Concept, Merits & Challenges
Evolution of the concept
- The concept of inter-basin transfer was proposed 130 years ago by Sir Arthur Cotton, who designed irrigation dams in the Godavari and Krishna river valleys.
- M. Visvesvaraya, an early icon among Indian engineers, further refined this idea.
- K.L. Rao and Captain Dinshaw J. Dastur subsequently expanded the scope of this concept in 1970 and 1980.
- Initially termed the ‘National Water Grid’, this concept re-emerged as the ‘River-Interlinking Project’ (ILR) from the Ministry of Water Resources to transfer surplus waters from the Ganga and the Brahmaputra to water-deficient regions in Central and Southern India.
- Following this, the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) was established in 1982 to conduct surveys and investigations, and to prepare feasibility reports for links under the National Perspective Plan. The NWDA identified 30 links for feasibility studies, divided into 14 Himalayan and 16 Peninsular river links.
Merits of River Interlinking
- Water Resource Management:
- Helps in transferring surplus water from water-rich basins to water-deficient regions, ensuring equitable distribution of water.
- Agricultural Productivity:
- Enhances irrigation potential in drought-prone areas, potentially boosting agricultural output and ensuring food security.
- Flood and Drought Mitigation:
- Reduces the frequency and intensity of floods in surplus regions and mitigates drought in deficit areas.
- Hydropower Generation:
- Provides opportunities for hydropower development, contributing to renewable energy and reducing dependency on fossil fuels.
- Inland Navigation:
- Facilitates the development of waterways for transportation, reducing the burden on road and rail networks.
- Socio-economic Benefits:
- Promotes rural development, creates job opportunities, and improves livelihoods through better water availability.
Issues and Concerns Related to River Interlinking
- Environmental Impact:
- Alters natural river ecosystems, affecting biodiversity, wetlands, and forests.
- Low flow of fresh water to the seas and Oceans can impact salinity levels, water chemistry and related impacts.
- Regime change of rivers and consequential changes in physical and chemical composition of sediment, river morphology and shape of delta.
- Submergence of land leading to deforestation and soil erosion.
- Dams result in diversion of forest areas, increased methane emissions from reservoirs, reservoir induced seismicity.
- There can be waterlogging and salinity intrusion related issues.
- Changes in surface water distribution could alter groundwater recharge patterns, potentially causing overextraction in certain areas.
- Displacement of Communities:
- Large-scale projects require land acquisition, leading to displacement of people, particularly tribal communities.
- High Cost and Financial Burden:
- Projects require massive investments, which may strain public finances and lead to delays in execution.
- Interstate Water Disputes:
- Sharing and transferring water across states could exacerbate existing water-sharing disputes.
- Climate Change Uncertainty:
- Changing rainfall patterns and unpredictable water availability may render some projects ineffective or unsustainable.
- Siltation and Maintenance Issues:
- Interlinking projects may face challenges like siltation in canals and reservoirs, increasing maintenance costs.
Also, the water surplus in most river basins of India is during the same period of monsoons. After the monsoon season even the so-called water surplus states such as Punjab, UP, Uttarakhand face water deficits. Hence, during this period there will be no surplus left to transfer to peninsular states.
Some Examples & Case Studies:
- Channelisation of the Kissimmee river in the State of Florida, authorised by the U.S. Congress in 1954 to mitigate flooding, is an environmental disaster, resulting in the loss of wetlands. Massive resources are being spent to revive its original configuration.
- The current state of the Aral Sea — one of the world’s largest lakes — is another example of how geoengineering projects destroy natural systems. The lake has now become a howling desert after the rivers that sustained it were diverted by irrigation projects implemented during the heady days of the Soviet Union.
- The Indus Delta offers a crucial lesson. Alice Albinia, in her book, Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River (2008), narrates how a delta system at the mouth of the Indus — which was once “the richest in all Pakistan” — became impoverished when the British started barrage construction, which Pakistan continued after 1947.
Ken-Betwa River Interlinking Project:
Background:
- The project is a tripartite agreement between Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and the Central Government.
- This project includes transfer of surplus water from the Ken basin in Madhya Pradesh to the deficit Betwa basin in Uttar Pradesh.
- This project is part of the National river linking project to connect 14 Himalayan and 16 peninsular rivers.
- The central government will contribute 90% of the project. It is India’s first river linking project.
Benefits of the project as per the government:
- It will enhance the irrigation potential of the water starved Bundelkhand region in UP and MP. It will also facilitate ground water recharge and reduce the occurrence of floods.
Concerns associated with the project:
- About 12,500 hectares of land is going to get submerged. This includes 9,000 hectares of forest and also Penna Tiger Reserve.
- Damage to the forest might create issues with rainfall patterns in the region.
- Ken river is not perennial hence could not meet the surplus demand of water.
- About 30% of the 103 MW of energy would be spent on lifting the water as Betwa is higher than Ken.
- The Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court has already raised concerns about the project.
- The cost-benefit calculations of the project also do not take into consideration the environmental and social costs.
Read More: Ken-Betwa Link Project
Way Forward
- In interlinking proposals, a provision of the minimum lean season flow should be safeguarded to maintain the ecology and the river regime
- Cumulative impact assessment for the entire project should be done and not on component-by-component basis.
- Rehabilitation and Resettlement should be done prior to undertaking the projects.
- First projects should be identified which has least opposition. Ken Betwa Linkage is the first Inter-linkage proposal to be taken up; it should be completed as the lighthouse of the project.
- Focus should be on reforming the water governance (as per Mihir Shah Committee Report), focus on water use efficiency, participatory water governance and reforms in water usage in the agricultural sector.