Rivers

The Pamba Pilot Project’s aim was to deliver “Policy Support to Integrated River Basin Management” and to contribute to the continuing EU-India policy dialogue in the water sector.

Newsletter of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) for April - May 2011 (Volume 9 Issue 3-4), focuses on the following topics.

• Analysis of TAC guidelines and decisions in recent meetings
  The Advisory Committee in the Union Ministry of Water Resources for consideration of techno-economic viability of Irrigation, Flood Control and Multi Purpose Project Proposals (TAC in short) is supposed to discuss the techno-economic viability of the irrigation, flood control and multi-purpose project proposals as per the Resolution published in the Union of India Gazette Notification No. 12/5/86-P-II dated Nov 27, 1987.

Venue: Venkatappa Art Gallery, Kasthurba road, Bengaluru

Collaborated by: Subramani J, Ravikumar S M Halli & Shivaprasad S

Description:

The study focuses on Bangalore, highlighting its important rivers, lakes and its very lavish natural resources and how it is getting damaged due to its excessive urban growth and ignorance of the people. We started our documentation from Nandi hills to Hosur was our destination. Here we filmed and photographed various aspects of this river, the agricultural landscape and the urban scape. These documentations are archival materials, which have been focused during the process of research. Like how the death of a river takes place, where it used to begin and rebirth of the river due to the excess development of Broad Bangalore’s urban area.

This report by Him Dhara, an environmental research and action collective, deals with the Asian Development Bank financed hydropower projects in Himachal Pradesh, which are leading to obstruction of the rivers and their consequent disappearance for harnessing energy and making ‘judicious’ use of the water. Within the hydro sector the attention has turned to the Indian Himalayan region which is estimated to have seventy nine per cent of the total hydropower potential of the country.

The technology of ‘run of the river’ (ROR) used to tap “the flow of rivers” in high gradient zones to generate power has given impetus to setting up of hydro-projects in the Himalayan states. In India, the mountainous region of the Himalayas offered the “perfect setting” for such projects, with the availability of several flowing water sources that could be tapped before they reached the plains. Of the Himalayan states, after Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh is second in line with a hydropower potential of about 21000 MW. The installed capacity has increased twenty fold (from 326 MW to 6370 MW) in the last ten years indicating the frenzied pace of hydropower development in the state.

The Ganges

Article courtesy: CGNet Swara

Kelo dam hunger strike: 7 more farmers shifted to hospital
Rajesh Tripathi is reporting from continuing hunger strike of farmers from Kelo dam site in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh. He says 7 more farmers have now been shifted to hospital. 4 were shifted before in last 2 days.

As you are aware of the fact that the Government has constituted an inspecting body comprising of high authority personnel’s of Central Water Commission, Planning Commission, Haryana Irrigation Department, Delhi Jal Board, Ministry of Environment and Forests and 6 members of Yamuna Bachao Aandolan. The team will then submit its report to the Central Government within one week and forthcoming plans will be discussed then.

The team had visited the Hathinikund barrage and told that it was a complete failure as the water is not at all being released from Hathinikund barrage. They came to know about the matter after enquiring with local public. The imposter authorities had released the said amount (160 cusecs) of water. The local public there told that they are habitual of crossing the Yamuna by riding on their bikes as it remains completely dry, but the water has been released.

Groundwater conditions in the multi-aquifer system in the delta, were studied through an integrated approach using hydrochemical, hydrogeological and isotopic techniques. This study was taken up because of the reported seawater intrusion into the groundwater system of this agriculturally rich region.

The data has been collected over a period of many years from 39 water quality monitoring stations along the main river and 102 stations on its tributaries which were setup in 2008/09.

The study focuses on the parameters for dissolved oxygen, (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and faecal coliforms (FC) as these indicate the biological health of the river. The period of study for the river Ganga is 1999-2008. The study finds that most of the water quality parameters studied do not meet the standards.