This document discusses interlinking rivers in India through the proposed National River Linking Project (NRLP). It notes that while India has 16.7% of the world's population, it only has 4% of the world's water resources. The NRLP aims to connect 36 rivers through 30 links and transfer water to drought-prone areas to address issues like floods, droughts, and water shortages. The project would provide irrigation to over 35 million hectares, generate 35 GW of hydropower, and cost around $120 billion over 30 years. However, critics argue it could cause ecological and social issues like displacing people and reducing aquatic ecosystems.
2. CONTENTS
Introduction
Reasons
NRLP (national river linking project)
Plan of NRLP
Benefits
Issued cause to NRLP
Conclusion
Reference
3. INTRODUCTION
India accounts for 2.4% of the worlds surface area but
supports 16.7% of the worlds population. India possesses
meager 4% of worlds water resources, that too highly
uncertain in time and space due to its climate. Still, India
possesses dismal per capita storage capacity compared to
those countries where rainfall is more or less evenly
distributed in time and space.
River Linking is a project of linking two or more rivers by creating a
network of manually created canals, and providing water to the land
areas that does not have river water access and reducing the flow of
water to sea using this means.
4. Per capita storage in cum
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
North
America
Russia Australia China India
Per capita storage in
cum
5. REASONS
Regional Rainfall Variation
Increasing Population and Food Demand
To Control Floods & Droughts
6. Regional Rainfall Variation
The rainfall over the country is primarily associated with tropical
depressions originating in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The
summer monsoon accounts for more than 85 % of the precipitation.
Large parts of Haryana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are not only in
deficit in rainfall but also subject to large variations, resulting in
frequent droughts and causing immense hardship to the population
and enormous loss to the nation.
7. The water availability even for drinking purposes becomes
critical, particularly in the summer months as the rivers dry
up and the ground water recedes.
Regional variations in the rainfall lead to a situations when
some parts of the country do not have enough water even for
raising a single crop. On the other hand excess rainfall
occurring in some parts of the country create havoc due to
floods.
8. Futuristic Demand Of Irrigation
Irrigation using river water and ground water has been the prime factor for
raising the food grain production in our country from a 50 million tonnes
in the 1950s to more than 200 million tonnes at present, leading us to
attain self-sufficiency in food.
Irrigated area has increased from 22 million hectares to 95 million hectares
during this period.
At present estimate the "ultimate" irrigation potential of the country being
stated as 113 million Ha.
9. To Control Floods & Droughts
Floods are a recurring feature, particularly in Brahmaputra and Ganga rivers, in which
almost 60 % of the river flows of our country occur.
Flood damages, which were Rs. 52 crores in 1953, have gone up to Rs. 5,846 crores in
1998 with annual average being Rs. 1,343 crores affecting the States of Assam, Bihar,
West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh along with untold human sufferings.
On the other hand large areas in the States of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu face recurring droughts. As much as 85 % of drought prone
area falls in these States.
10. NRLP
The National River Linking Project (NRLP) is designed to
ease water shortages in western and southern India while
mitigating the impacts of recurrent floods in the eastern parts
of the Ganga basin.
The NRLP, if and when implemented, will be one of the
biggest inter basin water transfer projects in the world.
11. Contours of NRLP
Building 30 links, 3000 small and large
reservoirs, 12500 km of canals to link 36
Himalayan and Peninsular rivers to
effect 178 km3 of inter-basin water
transport.
35 million ha of new irrigated area; 35
GW of hydro-capacity; navigation and
flood control benefits.
Gestation Period: Proposed=2016; Most
Likely=2050
Cost = Rs 560,000 cr. at 2016 prices (US
$ 120 Billion); 1 - 1.5% of Indias GDP
for the next 3 decades.
12. Goal purpose
Support South Asias quest
for food livelihoods and
water security.
Capitalize on the
uncommon opportunity
created by the NRLP
Promote a balanced,
analytical and informed
national discourse on India's
Water Future 2050.
Approaches to shaping it,
including through the River-
Linking project.
14. HIMALAYAN DEVOLOPMENT
The northern component would consist of a series of dams built along the
Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers in India, Nepal and Bhutan for the
purposes of storage.
Canals would be built to transfer surplus water from the eastern
tributaries of the Ganga to the west.
The Brahmaputra and its tributaries would be linked with the Ganga and
the Ganga with the Mahanadi river.
This part of the project would provide additional irrigation for about
220,000 square kilometers and generate about 30 GW of electricity.
16. PENINSULAR DEVOLOPMENT
First, the Mahanadi, Godavari. Krishna and Kaveri rivers would all be
linked by canals. Extra water storage dams would be built along the
course of these rivers. The purpose of this would be to transfer
surplus water from the Mahanadi and Godavari rivers to the south
of India.
Second, those rivers that flow west to the north of Mumbai and the
south of Tapi river would be linked. The water would be used by the
urban areas of Bombay and also to provide irrigation in the coastal
areas of Maharashtra
17. PENINSULAR DEVOLOPMENT
Third the Ken and Chambal rivers would be linked in order to
provide better water facilities for Madhya Pradesh and Uttar
Pradesh.
Finally a number of west-flowing rivers along the Western
Ghats simply discharge into the Arabian Sea.
The Peninsular part of the project would provide additional
irrigation to 130,000 square kilometers and generation an
additional 4GW of power
19. BENEFITS
I. Irrigation - By linking of rivers vast amount of land areas which does not
have otherwise irrigated and unusable for agriculture become fertile.
II. Flood prevention By creating network of rivers flood & drought
problem can be greatly avoided by channeling excess water to areas that
are not experiencing a flood or are dry. This works similar to canal system
in Netherlands to channel excess water from sea.
III. Generation of electricity - With new canals built, feasibility of new DAMS
to generate hydroelectric power becomes a possibility.
IV. Navigation - Newly created network of canals opens up new routes and
ways and routes of water navigation, which is generally more efficient and
cheaper compared to road transport.
20. V. Higher GDP Growth -By interlinking rivers, there will be a boost and increased
employment in agricultural sector, power, transportation; construction etc.
Interlinking can increase the GDP by 5to 6 %.
VI. Business Opportunities It is expected to generate large-scale business
opportunities in manufacture of mechanical equipment's, earthmovers, stone
crushers, power shovels, other transportation vehicles, etc. In addition, this project
would also require large scale manufacturing of construction materials such as an
estimated 56 million tones of cement and 2 million tonnes of steel etc.
VII. Drinking Water - Majority of our population will get drinking water; Special
emphasis is that all the cities connected by Golden quadrilateral project will get
drinking water.
VIII.Revenue- The government is expecting revenues from benefits of navigating
through waters, increased tourism, joint ventures, private initiatives and cess on
waters
21. 1. Ecological issues Major concern being the argument that rivers
change their course in 70100 years and once they are linked, future
change of course can create huge practical problems for the project.
2. Aqua life A number of leading environmentalists are of the opinion
that the project could be an ecological disaster. There would be a
decrease in downstream flows resulting in reduction of fresh water
inflows into the seas seriously jeopardizing aquatic life.
22. 3. Deforestation Creation of canals would need large areas
of land resulting large scale deforestation in certain area.
4. Areas getting submerged - Possibility of new dams comes
with the threat that habitable or reserved land getting
submerged under water.
5. Displacement of people As large strips of land might
have to be converted to canals, a considerable population
living in this areas must need to be rehabilitated to new
areas
23. CONCLUSION
Considering the pragmatic view of all the issues raised it can
be concluded that implementation of this ambitious scheme is
not possible in foreseeable future.
Hence it can be a better option to concentrate on the local
resources and think upon the alternatives available.
24. REFERENCE
Indian Rivers Inter-link Wikipedia
NWDA (2006)
http://wrmin.nic.in/forms/list.aspx#ctl00_contentpage