Sunday, September 17, 2017

Sardar Sarovar Dam, Part 1 - History & Benefits

Narmada is the fifth largest river in India and largest West flowing river of the Indian Peninsula.Its annual flow           approximates to the combined flow of the rivers Sutlej, Beas and Ravi.  Originating from the Maikala ranges at Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh, it flows Westwards over a length of about 1312 km. before draining into the Gulf of Cambay, 50 km. West of Bharuch City. The first 1077 km. stretch is in Madhya Pradesh and the next 35 km. stretch  of the river forms the boundary between the States of Madhya Pradesh and Maharasthra.  Again, the next 39 km. forms the boundary between Maharasthra and Gujarat and the last stretch of 161 km. lies in Gujarat. The Basin area of this river is about 1 lac sq. km. The utilisation of this river basin, however, is hardly about 4%. Most of the water of this peninsula river  goes into the sea. Inspite of  the huge potential, there was hardly any development of the Narmada water resources prior to independence.
History of Sardar Sarovar Dam :
·         It was a dream for Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel to build a dam on Narmada and utilize the full potential of the water flowing through River Narmada.
·         In 1946, the then Government of Central Provinces and Berar and the then Government of Bombay requested the Central Waterways, Irrigation and Navigation Commission (CWINC) to take up investigations on the Narmada river system for basin-wise development of the river with flood control, irrigation, power and extension of navigation as the objectives in view.
·         in 1948, the Central Ministry of Works, Mines & Power appointed an Ad-hoc Committee headed by Shri A.N. Khosla, Chairman, CWINC to study the projects and to recommend the priorities. Based on the recommendations of the aforesaid Ad-hoc Committee, estimates for investigations of the Bargi, Tawa, Punasa (Narmadasagar) and Broach Projects were sanctioned by the Government of India in March, 1949.
·         The Central Water & Power Commission carried out a study of the hydroelectric potential of the Narmada basin in the year 1955. After the investigations were carried out by the Central Water & Power commission, the Navagam site was finally decided upon in consultation with the erstwhile Government of Bombay for the construction of the dam.
·         With the formation of the State of Gujarat on 1st May, 1960, the Narmada Project stood transferred to that State.  Accordingly, the Government of Gujarat gave an administrative approval to Stage-I of the
·         Narmada Project in February, 1961.  The Project was then inaugurated by late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on 5th April, 1961.
·         Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal was formed on 6th October 1969 and its primary objective was to set out conditions regarding the resettlement and rehabilitation of those displaced by the dams.
·         As per the tribunal’s decision released by Indian government after 10 years of investigation on 12th Oct 1979 30 major, 135 medium, and 3000 small dams, were granted approval for construction, including raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam. This decision was motivated by the assumption that it would provide water to around forty million people, irrigation, and electricity to people in the region.
·         The construction of commenced in 1985 and the major objective of this dam was to increase irrigation in the concerned areas and and produce hydroelectricity.
·         In 1985 Medha Patkar and her colleagues noticed that the construction of dam lacs the basic & crucial studies related to its impact on environment and peoples residing in the area. the officials related to the project had not even checked the land records and updated them, The people who were going to be affected by the construction of the dam were given no information but the offer for rehabilitation. Villagers weren't consulted and weren't asked for a feedback on the assessment that had taken place. And thus Narmada Bachao Andolan (NA) was formed.
·         The World Bank (WB) began working on the Narmada Project after it got clearance from the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal. The team sent by WB to assess the project on technical & economic terms didn’t focus on social & environmental aspects.
·         Although the WB has realized the harm it has done by sanctioning the loan and revised its policy to ensure that, after a reasonable transition period, the displaced people regain at least their previous standard of living. the relocation process was flawed. Several tribal people have been harmed by the project.
·         In 1985 the World Bank sanctioned the loan to state governments despite of knowing the harms this project may create but also said, "The argument in favor of the Sardar Sarovar Project is that the benefits are so large that they substantially outweigh the costs of the immediate human and environmental disruption.
·         Medha Patkar and other protesters testified on the Bank's role in Washington D.C in 1989. This led to a build-up of pressure on the Bank to set an independent review to assess the situation at hand. A lot of support was withdrawn from the project after this. The Indian Government canceled the loan sanctioned by the World Bank on March 31, 1993.
·         Since the inception, this project has been controversial and so it took more than 5 decades for it to complete. Following a number of controversial cases before the Supreme Court of India (1999, 2000, 2003), by 2014 the Narmada Control Authority had approved a series of changes in the final height – and the associated displacement caused by the increased reservoir, from the original 80 m (260 ft) to a final 163 m (535 ft) from foundation.
·         As per the decision given by Supreme Court, which was released by Government after 7 years delay The court introduced a mechanism to monitor the progress of resettlement pari passu (without partiality) with the raising of the height of the dam through the Grievance Redressal Authorities (GRA) in each party state. It has paved the way for completing the project to attain full envisaged benefits. The court's final line of the order states, "Every endeavour shall be made to see that the project is completed as expeditiously as possible"
·         Height Increases :
o    In February 1999, the Supreme Court of India gave the go ahead for the dam's height to be raised to 88 m (289 ft) from the initial 80 m (260 ft).
o    In October 2000 again, in a 2-to-1 majority judgment in the Supreme Court, the government was allowed to construct the dam up to 90 m (300 ft).[2]
o    In May 2002, the Narmada Control Authority approved increasing the height of the dam to 95 m (312 ft).
o    In March 2004, the Authority allowed a 15 m (49 ft) height increase to 110 m (360 ft).
o    In March 2006, the Narmada Control Authority gave clearance for the height of the dam to be increased from 110.64 m (363.0 ft) to 121.92 m (400.0 ft). This came after 2003 when the Supreme Court of India refused allow the height of the dam to increase again.
o    In August 2013, heavy rains raised the reservoir level to 131.5 m (431 ft), which forced 7,000 villagers upstream along the Narmada River to relocate.[14]
o    On June 2014, Narmada Control Authority gave the final clearance to raise the height from 121.92 m (400.0 ft) metres to 138.68 m (455.0 ft)[15]
o    The Narmada Control Authority decided on June 17 2017 to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam to its fullest height by ordering the closure of 30 Gates
o    One of the 30 dams planned on river Narmada, Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) is the largest structure to be built.

The Supreme Court decision

Despite popular protest, the Supreme Court gave clearance for the height to be increased to 121.92 m (400 ft), but in the same judgment Justice Mr. Bharucha gave directions to Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (the Grievance Redressal Authorities of Gujarat) that before further construction begins, they should certify (after inspection) that all those displaced by the raise in height of 5 metres have already been satisfactorily rehabilitated, and also that suitable vacant land for rehabilitating them is already in the possession of the respective States. This process shall be repeated for every successive five metre increase in height.
Benefits of Sardar Sarovar Dam
·         It is a gravity dam on the Narmada river near NavagamGujarat in India. Situated to the south west of Malwa plateau, the dissected hill tracts culminate in the Mathwar hills, located in Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh. Below these hills Narmada river flows through a long, terrific gorge. This gorge extends into Gujarat where the river is tapped by the Sardar Sarovar dam.
·         Four Indian states namely Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra and Rajasthan are mainly benefitted by its irrigation and electrical power supply
·         It is a part of the Narmada Valley Project, a large hydraulic engineering project involving the construction of a series of large irrigation and hydroelectric multi-purpose dams on the Narmada river.
·         Irrigation
o    The project will irrigate more than 18,000 km2 (6,900 sq mi), most of it in droughtprone areas of Kutch and Saurashtra. The Sardar Sarovar Project will provide irrigation facilities to 18.45 lac ha. of land, covering 3112 villages of 73 talukas in 15 districts of Gujarat.
o    It will also irrigate 2,46,000 ha. of land in the strategic desert districts of Barmer and Jallore in Rajasthan and 37,500 ha. in the tribal hilly tract of Maharashtra through lift.
o     About 75% of the command area in Gujarat is drought prone while entire command in Rajasthan is drought prone. Assured water supply will soon make this area drought proof.
·         Power
o    There are two power houses viz. River Bed Power House and Canal Head Power House with an installed capacity of 1200 MW and 250 MW respectively.
o    The dam's main power plant houses six 200 MW Francis pump-turbines to generate electricity and include a pumped-storage capability. Additionally, a power plant on the intake for the main canal contains five 50 MW Kaplan turbine-generators.
o    The total installed capacity of the power facilities is 1,450 MW. Its final configuration is the second largest concrete gravity dam (by volume) after Grand Coulee Dam in the US and has the world's third largest spillway discharging capacity.
o    The power would be shared by three states - Madhya Pradesh - 57%, Maharashtra - 27% and Gujarat 16%.
o    This will provide a useful peaking power to western grid of the country which has very limited hydel power production at present. A series of micro hydel power stations are also planned on the branch canals where convenient falls are available.
·         Flood Protection
o    The dam will also provide flood protection to riverine reaches measuring 30,000 ha (74,000 acres) covering 210 villages and Bharuch city and a population of 400,000 in Gujarat
·         Drinking Water Supply
o    A special allocation of 0.86 MAF of water has been made to provide drinking water to 131 urban centres and 9633 villages (53% of total 18144 villages of Gujarat) within and out-side command in Gujarat for present population of 28 million and prospective population of over 40 million by the year 2021.
o    All the villages and urban centres of arid region of Saurashtra and Kachchh and all "no source" villages and the villages affected by salinity and fluoride in North Gujarat will be benefited.
o    Water supply requirement of several industries will also be met from the project giving a boost to all-round production
·         Wild life sanctuaries viz. "Shoolpaneshewar wild life sanctuary" on left Bank, Wild Ass Sanctuary in little Rann of Kachchh, Black Buck National Park at Velavadar, Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary in Kachchh, Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary and Alia Bet at the mouth of River will be benefited.
·         SSP would generate electricity. On completion, annual additional agricultural production would be Rs. 1600 crores, power generation and water supply Rs. 175 crores, aggregating about Rs. 2175 crores every year equivalent to about Rs. 6.0 crores a day.
·         In addition, there will be benefits of fisheries development, recreational facilities, water supply for industries, agro industrial development, protection of conserved forest from grazers and secondary benefits viz employment generation, increase in vegetal cover in 3.4 M. Ham. of GCA, gains due to compensatory forest, tree plantation 100 times and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) fixation to large extent by 70 times.

Source – Wikipedia, narmada.org, sardarsarovardam.org, supreme court judgement on NBA Vs Union of India 2000.

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