The hypothesis that modern-day Ghaggar-Hakra river system, which flows intermittently

Yamuna River Pollution And Sustainable Solutions For

The Future
About 57 million people depend on Yamuna waters as it accounts for more than 70% of
Delhi’s water supplies, but today it is also referred to as ‘Delhi’s dying holy river’.

Yamuna is the second largest tributary of River Ganga and the longest tributary of India, it
originates from Yamunotri glacier in Uttarakhand and flows across seven states and merges
with the river Ganga at Sangam in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh.

 Religious Significance: Yamuna is worshipped in Hinduism as the ‘Goddess

Yamuna’ and as per Hindu mythology is the daughter of the Sun and sister of the
Yama the ‘God of Death’. It is common practice for people to bathe in the sacred
waters to rid oneself of sins and the last rites of the dead are also performed at its
banks.
 Socioeconomic Significance: It helps create the highly fertile alluvial Yamuna- in
the Indo-Gangetic plain. Nearly 57 million people depend on the Yamuna’s waters.
With an annual flow of about 10,000 cubic billion metres, the river accounts for more
than 70% of Delhi’s water supply.

POLLUTION

Long ago, the waters of Yamuna were pristine blue but today the Yamuna is considered to be
one of the severely polluted rivers in the world. The Yamuna is particularly polluted
downstream of New Delhi, the capital of India, which dumps about 58% of its waste into the
river.

The most pollution comes from Wazirabad, from where Yamuna enters Delhi.
Main Sources of Pollution

 Domestic Sources

According to a report submitted by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and the Central
Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to the Yamuna Pollution Control Committee, at
least 90% of domestic wastewater in the city flows into the Yamuna.

The wastewater mainly comes from household activities hence the presence of high content
of detergent, laundry chemicals, and phosphate compounds.

Samples collected were found to have phosphate concentration of 0.51 mg/litre, which is
higher than the normal range of 0.005 to 0.05mg/litres.

This abundance of phosphate formed layers of toxic froth covering the rivers.

 Industrial heavy metal contamination

The catchment area of River Yamuna in Delhi is highly urbanized and is networked with
several drains. Najafgarh and Shahdara drains are the major drains that discharge a heavy
load of pollutants into the river.

Rapid urbanization and population growth results in industrialization pose a major threat of
heavy metal pollution for nearby water bodies. The water quality monitoring of River
Yamuna has indicated a significant presence of several heavy metals in its water.

Among the heavy metals investigated in the River Yamuna water, Iron (Fe) was found to be
most abundant and even exceeding the limit.

High amounts of heavy metals in water can cause several health effects such as reduced
growth and development, cancer, organ damage, nervous system damage, etc.

 Untreated Sewage

More than 800 million litres of largely untreated sewage is pumped in the Yamuna each day.
Another 44 million litres of industrial effluents are also discharged daily into the river.

Sewage that is treated before being released into the river accounts for only 35% of the total
estimated sewage discharge.

According to the Central Pollution Board, the water contains a concentration of 1.1 billion
fecal coliform bacteria per 100 milliliters of water. The standard for bathing is 500 coliform
bacteria per 100 milliliters.

Although Sewage treatment plants (STPs) have been constructed in various parts of Delhi,
the treated, or partially treated sewage from these STPs is continuously being discharged
directly or through the carrier drains into the river.
Many times untreated sewage goes directly into the river at few locations due to non-
operational STPs caused by power failures, mechanical problems or maintenance issues,
which further deteriorate water quality issues.

 Idol Immersion leading to increased toxicity

Immersion of idols during festivals with cheap lead and chrome paints and plaster of paris
and puja articles such as polythene bags, foam cut-outs, flowers, food offerings, decorations,
metal polish, plastic sheets, cosmetic items all are a cause for concern for the river’s quality.

Post-immersion, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) found that the level of heavy
metals such as chromium and iron increased significantly.

Chromium increased 11 times from the permissible limit of 0.05mg/L, while iron
concentration increased 71 times from the 0.3 mg/L limit.

If the water is not treated, it will increase the chance of toxins entering the food chain through
vegetables grown on the floodplains. The toxicity of heavy metals can damage the brain,
lungs, kidney, liver, other vital organs functions and alter blood composition.

 Plastic Pollution

In Agra, the Yamuna has been choked by intense plastic pollution. After the 2017 ban on
single-use plastics, there has still been rampant use of plastics which is evident by the
production of plastic.

According to records, Delhi produces 2,51,674 tonnes of plastic each year — 50% of which
is single-use. That’s roughly 63,000 elephants worth of plastic.

Along the river, anything from flip-flops to paper products lay in piles every few feet and a
lot of plastic bags, even recyclable ones, end up in the river.

Dr Anil Kumar, director at the state environment department, said plastics enter the river
mostly through open drains in which people dispose of their waste.

PROJECTS AND PLANS FOR YAMUNA

1. Yamuna Action Plan

It is one of the largest river restoration projects in India which is a bilateral project between
the Government of India and Japan. It is being executed by the National River Conservation
Directorate and the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Government of India.

The project is divided into 3 parts:

 Yamuna Action Plan I (YAP I) – 1993 – 2002, 2002 – 2003 (Extended Phase)

The plans were carried out by the National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD), Ministry
of Environment in collaboration with various State Department. The plan focused on two
types of actions which are Sewerage and non-sewerage facilities.
Sewerage: construction of 29 STPs 58 pumping stations and 179 km of sewers was
proposed.

Non-sewerage: 1282 public toilet complexes, 96 crematoria, Riverfront development,

plantation and public awareness and participation were proposed. A study on river pollution
to estimate future pollution loads of the river Yamuna from different sources. The total
sewage treatment capacity created under YAP I was 750MLD.

 Yamuna Action Plan II (YAP II) – 2004 – 2011

YAP II was mostly to undertake non-sewerage part of the objectives.

The total STP capacity sanctioned under YAP II was 189 MLD. The total budget sanctioned:
INR. 6.24 billion. There was an emphasis on Public Participation & Awareness, Public
Relations and Institutional Strengthening & Capacity Building of MCD. A Master Plan and
Feasibility Study was also carried out.

Various Pilot projects included Dairy Farm Waste Management, Dhobighat Sudhar Yojna,
Slaughterhouse Modernisation and Waste Management, Antim Niwas Sudhar Yojna and
Slum Rehabilitation Study.

 Yamuna Action Plan Phase III – 2018 onwards

11 Projects under National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) have been planned to conserve
River Yamuna in Delhi including rehabilitation of sewers, rehabilitation of Rising mains,
Tertiary Treatment Plants and Sewerage projects in four packages of Kondli (K1, K2, K3,
K4), three packages of Rithala (R1, R2, R3) and Okhla Zone (O).

2. Yamuna Purification Drive, 2018

Organized by the Public Health Department and covers 15 towns including Gurgaon,
Faridabad, Yamuna Nagar, Karnal, Panipat, and Sonepat. Its objectives are to control the
discharge of raw sewage into the river.

Initiative that has been done are:

 Eleven treatment plants are being installed along the 83-km-long sewer line.
 A treatment plant that can treat 30 million liters a day has been installed in Gurgaon
which will help reduce the level of pollution from 200 mg a liter to 30 mg a liter,
before it enters the Yamuna.
 A 5.8-km-long sewer line has been laid in the city to collect the polluted water at the
treatment plant.

COMMUNITY INITIATIVES

1. Yamuna Foundation for Blue Water Inc.

Started in 2000 and the objective is to clean the pollution in the Yamuna River throughout its
course and to create a better ecosystem in New Delhi. On World Water Day, 2010, local team
members, students, and activists in Agra, Hyderabad, and Delhi, India, along with Wuhan,
China led several watershed cleanup projects.

2. ‘Maa Shri Yamuna Seva Samiti’ or Friends of Yamuna

Volunteer group started by newspaper hawker Ashok Upadhyay to do his bit in protecting the
river from further pollution.

On the last Sunday of every month, Upadhyay comes to the Chhath steps of the river near to
clear the waste accumulated on the banks. He is joined by about 100 other newspaper
hawkers of the city who have taken upon themselves to be the change that they want to see.

SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS (SOCIO, ECONOMIC, ENVIRONMENTAL)

Creating a project that balances the social, environmental, and economic interests of a
community is important to achieve sustainability. When a project is planned in consideration
of all these aspects, it will create a long-lasting program that benefits everyone.

What can be done at the administration level

 Develop more public toilets and crematoria to reduce the sewage waste into the river.
 Educational programs to increase awareness encouraging people to use biodegradable
paints for painting idols and stop dumping wastes in the rivers is needed.
 Stringent Implementation of regulation for industries and hospitals not to dump waste
in the river
 Upgradation of existing sewage treatment plants (STPs) that don’t comply with
standards.
 Integration of water management by linking the private sector, local communities and
NGOs to ensure an effective and efficient allocation and use of water for all.
 New strategies for the existing water treatment such as automated river quality
monitoring.
 Develop parks with fountains or grassy lands, pools, plantations, etc., along the
riverbanks to provide opportunities for water to undergo artificial aeration that leads
to self-purification of the river.
 Full and participatory environmental impact assessments should be ensured for all
projects.

What can be done at the Community Level

 The locals can report ground results and activities on a regular basis to help
authorities keep check on the effluent disposal by the industries.
 Train and educate people about ensuring proper maintenance of the sewage system
and waste disposal methods.
 Create a waste management system that can help the community make a livelihood
for themselves in the form of recycling and upcycling the wastes.
 Apply rainwater harvesting to meet water requirements throughout the year that is
uncontaminated for domestic and other needs.
 Improving the community’s literacy rate (taken as a proxy for awareness).
A study has shown that a significant positive relationship is found between the rate of
 increase in literacy level in a district and the water quality in rivers flowing through
the district.
 Community can use more environmentally friendly idols alternatives that use organic
materials.

THE EARTH5R CIRCULAR ECONOMY BASED SOLUTIONS

Earth5R works with citizens to tackle sustainability issues that affect their local
ecosystem. One of the initiatives that Earth5R has done is in the Yamuna River.

15-20 volunteers from Earth5R went to the Yamuna River where they were shocked to find
how utterly lifeless the river looked due to the pollution. The water was dark and there was
trash everywhere. It was clear that their waste management strategies (or lack thereof) have
not been successful.

The volunteers spread out and cleaned up as much of the area that they could. As a result,
about 2-3 full bags of plastic and other rubbish were collected from just that small area alone.
The waste was then given to the ragpicker who then is able to recycle it and earn some
livelihood.

This is one example of a circular economy model. As it brought social, economic and
environmental impacts.

 Social : A better system of clean-up activity that also helps the local rag pickers
instead of just leaving the garbage on the bank.
 Economic : Providing a livelihood to the local rag pickers by giving them the
opportunity to recycle the collected waste.
 Environmental : A cleaner river and a better waste management.


By establishing circular economy based programs that are an alternative to a traditional linear
economy (make, use, dispose) and have active collaborations with the local community, local
problems like bad waste management can be turned into opportunities for the local
community.

Our

Himalayan glaciers that melt into lakes are losing more ice than previous estimates
suggested1.

Glacial melting has been accelerating globally since the beginning of the century. But the
satellites used to study Himalayan glaciers that end in lakes can only measure the lakes’
surfaces; they don’t allow researchers to see how the glaciers are changing under water.

Guoqing Zhang at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and his colleagues used
satellite data to map the growth of about 10,000 Himalayan glacial lakes over time. The team
also deployed small uncrewed vessels to roam some of the lakes and determine their depth.
These data allowed the authors to estimate the amount of glacial ice that had been replaced by
water beneath the lakes’ surfaces.

The team estimates that from 2000 to 2020, the mass lost from glaciers that end in lakes was
about 41 billion tonnes — 6.5% more than previous studies found.

As lakes’ volumes continue to grow, glaciers will lose more underwater mass. Measuring this
effect could help to further our understanding of hazards such as flooding that results from
the overflow of glacial lakes.

A NASA led study shows that glaciers in High Mountain Asia are moving slower and that the
slow-moving glaciers have thinned the most over time. This could pose a threat to the future
stability of the region.

Background

The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is the source of 10 major river systems that
provide water, ecosystem services, and the basis of livelihood to more than 210 million
people upstream in the mountains and 1.3 billion people downstream. While the meltwater
that flows from the 90,000 glaciers in High Mountain Asia is critical to the lives and
livelihoods of the people downstream, its significance is much wider, because the snow and
ice stored at high altitude would otherwise push up global sea levels if it all melted and ran
into the ocean.

The 30-km long Gangotri glacier located in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand is the
primary source for the Ganga. River Yamuna has its origin in the Bandar Poonch glacier just
above Yamunotri. The Alaknanda has its source in the Alakapuri glacier above Badrinath.
The River Mandakini has its source in the Sumeru glacier above the Kedarnath Temple. The
Bhara Shigiri glacier in the Chandra Valley of Lahaul in Himachal Pradesh feeds the Chenab
river. The Zemu glacier is the largest in the Eastern Himalayas in Sikkim. It is at the base of
the Kanchendzonga and is one of the sources for the Teesta river that joins the Brahmaputra.

The rapid shrinking, thinning and receding of the Himalayan glaciers due to rising
temperatures and sudden rainfalls caused by global warming pose a real threat to the millions
who depend on these rivers for sustenance.

The Shrine of Yamunotri at the source of river Yamuna. Atop is a flank

of Bandar Poonch peak (3615 meters). The actual source, a frozen lake Crisis
of ice and glacier (Champasar Glacier) located on the Kalind Mountain Pollution
at the height of 4421 m above sea level is about 1 km further up is not Rivers
easily accessible. Hence the shrine has been located on the foot of the wPollution by
hill. The Temple of divine mother Yamuna was built by Maharaja Pratap Industries
Shah of Tehri Garhwal. wRiver
Damodar
River
Yamuna
India consumes about 86,311 tonnes (t) of technical-grade insecticides Upper
annually to cover 182.5 million hectare of its land. Most Indian rivers segment
pass through agricultural areas that use pesticides. This makes leaching Delhi
 Treatment
from agricultural fields the most serious non-point — unspecified, and What Now?
therefore, not measurable accurately — source of pollution to the aquatic See Map
environment. And now there’s a 1995 study that’s found traces of Groundwat
isomers (a carcinogenic organochlorine) in Indian rivers, including the n er
Yamuna.
Lakes
n
About 57 million people depend on Yamuna waters. With an annual flow
of about 10,000 cubic metres (cum) and usage of 4,400 cum (of which AT A
irrigation constitutes 96 per cent), the river accounts for more than 70 per GLANCE
cent of Delhi’s water supplies. Available water treatment facilities are
not capable of removing the pesticide traces. Waterworks laboratories Scarcity
cannot even detect them. Worse, Yamuna leaves Delhi as a sewer, laden n Urban
with the city’s biological and chemical wastes. Downstream, at Agra, n Rural
this becomes the main municipal drinking water source. Here too, Water
existing treatment facilities are no match for the poisons. Thus, Speak
consumers in Delhi and Agra ingest unknown amounts of toxic pesticide
residues each time they drink water. SEE ALSO

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), on its part, had found Water war
endosulphan residues — alpha and beta isomers — in the Yamuna in Look up!
1991. An earlier study by H C Agarwal (Delhi University) had traced ddt How to
residues amounting to 3,400 nanogram per litre (ng/l). However, later harvest
cpcb studies showed reduced ddt levels. To gauge the immensity of the n In rural
threat, it is necessary to trace the river’s flow — divided in five segments areas
on the basis of hydro-geomorphological and ecological characteristics — n In urban
down to its final reaches. areas
Jal yodhas
Upper segment Way ahead
HARYANA FACTOR: Yamuna’s pollution starts from Tajewala in the
upper segment. Here two canals, the Western Yamuna Canal (WYC) and
the Eastern Yamuna Canal (EYC), divert river waters — save in the
three monsoon months — into Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (UP). The
WYC crosses Yamuna Nagar, Karnal and Panipat before reaching the
Haiderpur treatment plant (which supplies part of Delhi’s water),
receiving wastewater from Yamuna Nagar and Panipat.

Drain Nos ii and viii branch off the WYC augment the water in the river.
Another augmentation canal branches out of the WYC at Yamuna Nagar,
and rejoins the canal about 80 km downstream at Karnal. All domestic
and industrial discharges from Yamuna Nagar are let out into this canal.
Water from the augmentation canal is used for irrigation. However, when
excess water from the wyc is let into it, pollutants are flushed into the
wyc downstream at Karnal. Thus, a few times a year, there is a sudden
and massive increase in pollution loads when the water reaches
Haiderpur.

Furthermore, at Panipat, discharges from the Panipat sugar mill and

distillery are let out into a disused canal, which has a kutcha dam across
it. Sometimes, when the effluents cross the dam, it results in a major
increase in biological oxygen demand (BOD) loads in the WYC. A
CPCB inspection report estimated that there were 1,00,000 cum of
effluents in the disused canal, having a bod level of 1,380 mg/l.
According to the report, when this water enters the WYC, it carries with
it a total of 125 t of BOD and the BOD levels reach 17 mg/l at
Haiderpur; the acceptable bod levels for raw water meant for treatment
are three mg/l.

Haryana’s vast agricultural fields are also significant contributors to

pollution. The consumption of pesticides in Haryana in the years 1995-
96 was to the tune of 5,100 t. Out of this, benzene hexachlorides (BHC)
accounted for 600.24 t, malathion 831.48 t and endosulphan, 263.16 t.
The state department of agriculture estimates that 12.5 per cent of the
Yamuna basin has forest cover, 27.5 is wastelands, 53 per cent is
agricultural land; the rest are villages, towns, cities and roads. There are
plans to bring 27.5 per cent more under agriculture: this means more
abstraction from the river and also greater use and subsequent runoff of
fertilisers and pesticides.

Delhi : Biggest Culprit

Yamuna enters Delhi at Palla village 15 km upstream of Wazirabad
barrage, which acts as a reservoir for Delhi. Delhi generates 1,900
million litre per day (mld) of sewage, against an installed wastewater
treatment capacity of 1,270 mld. Thus, 630 mld of untreated and a
significant amount of partially treated sewage enter the river every day.
The Wazirabad barrage lets out very little water into the river. In summer
months especially, the only flow downstream of Wazirabad is of
industrial and sewage effluents. Lesser discharge means lesser river flow
and thus, greater levels of pollution. From the Okhla barrage, which is
the exit point for the river in Delhi, the Agra canal branches out from
Yamuna. During the dry months, almost no water is released from this
barrage to downstream Yamuna. Instead, discharges from the Shahadara
drain join the river downstream of the barrage, bringing effluents from
east Delhi and Noida into the river. This is the second largest polluter of
the river after the Najafgarh drain.

The main problem lies in undetected and untreated pesticide residues.

Waterworks officials in Delhi and Agra point out that pesticide traces
cannot be removed with conventional treatment. "Organic substances can
be assimilated in freshwater, provided there is enough freshwater in the
river," states R Dalwani, scientist, ministry of environment and forests
(MEF). "But for micropollutants such as pesticides, only more
freshwater can reduce the percentage of traces in water. These cannot be
dissolved or assimilated, but certainly can be diluted to an extent." The
river has a dilution requirement of 75 per cent, which implies that for
every 100 litres of wastewater, 75 litres of freshwater is required.
Scientists state that with the flow of water, pollutants (especially organic
pollutants) degrade to a large extent. But at every step, this purified
water is abstracted, and ever larger loads of pollution make their way
into the river.

Treatment technologies : Not Cheap

Water treatment technologies in practice in the West are expensive,
something which India can ill-afford. Besides, it is now widely
acknowledged that conventional water treatment processes, based on
chemical coagulation and filtration or biological slow sand filtration,
have little capacity to remove water-soluble pesticides.

Perhaps much-needed and urgent change will come if the one who
consumes the dread water — Delhi’s citizens or indeed Agra’s —
refuses to ingest such deadly poisons, and demands the legitimate right
to clean drinking water. Who does the Yamuna belong to, after all?
Here are some good papers on the water crisis in India based on the provided sources:

1. Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) Report by NITI Aayog: This

report highlights the severity of the water crisis in India, mentioning that nearly 600
million people are facing high to extreme water stress and about 200,000 people are
dying every year due to inadequate access to safe water. It also emphasizes India's
low ranking in the water quality index and the urgent need for water management
reforms

 Thematic Paper on Water Crisis in Indian Cities by NIDM: This paper delves into the
systemic failure or the impact of changing climate on the water crisis in Indian cities. It
provides insights into the challenges faced by urban areas in managing water resources
effectively and the need for sustainable solutions to address the crisis

 Research Paper on Water Scarcity in India: This paper discusses the threat of water
scarcity to the sustainable management of water in India. It addresses issues such as
population growth, scarcity of drinking water, erratic monsoon rains, and the decline in water
availability, highlighting the urgent need for sustainable water management practices in the
country

 Research Paper on Water Stress and Water Crisis in Large Cities of India: This
paper examines the problem of water crisis in large cities of India, identifying key drivers of
water shortages and stressing the importance of addressing water stress to mitigate the crisis
in urban areas

4. .

These papers provide valuable insights into the water crisis in India, highlighting the
challenges, impacts, and the urgent need for sustainable water management practices to
address the growing water scarcity issues in the country.

NATIONAL RIVER LINKING PROJECT

The National Perspective Plan (NPP) was prepared by the then Ministry of Irrigation (now
Ministry of Jal Shakti) in August 1980 for water resources development through inter basin
transfer of water, for transferring water from water surplus basins to water-deficit basins.
Under the NPP, the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has identified 30 links
(16 under Peninsular Component & 14 under Himalayan Component) for preparation of
Feasibility Reports. Details and status of the proposals for inter-state linking of rivers under
the Inter Linking of Rivers Programme is furnished at Annexure.

The implementation of the ILR projects depend on the consensus of the concerned States.
Thus the interlinking of rivers programme is being pursued based on the principle of
consensus and agreement among the concerned States. An interlinking project would reach
the implementation stage once agreement amongst party states is reached on water sharing.
Thereafter for implementation all requisite statutory clearances need to be obtained.

Government of Uttar Pradesh has requested NWDA to take up the study of linking Sharda
River to Gomtiriver. Draft Pre-Feasibility Report of the Intra State link viz; Sharda-Gomti
link has been completed by NWDA and submitted to the State Government in October,
2021.

This Information was given by the Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Shri Bishweswar Tudu
in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

India’s river linking project could affect

monsoon season
18 December 2023
3 minutes
Water will be diverted to reservoirs such as these in Kakinada, Andhra Prades, also known as
the rice bowl of India. Image: Hari Mahidhar/Shutterstock

As India’s controversial National River Linking Project

goes ahead, new research reveals it could disrupt
monsoons

In October, India’s ambitious scheme to build a 230-kilometre canal between the Ken and
Betwa rivers was finally approved. It’s the first of many projects planned for implementation
under the National River Linking Project (NRLP), which aims to connect 37 Himalayan and
peninsular rivers across the country via some 3,000 reservoirs and 15,000 kilometres of dams
and canals. The government has touted the NRLP, which was first mooted more than four
decades ago, as the solution to drought-proofing the country. But new research suggests the
US$168 billion project could actually make the drought worse.

India’s average annual surface water run-off is about 1869 billion cubic metres, which should
be more than sufficient to meet the country’s rising water demands – a significant portion of
which is designated for agriculture. However, most of this water arrives during the monsoon
season, between June and September, and an estimated 60 per cent of the rainfall drains
directly into the oceans. As such, just 37 per cent of surface water can currently be used.

The goal of the NRLP is to annually divert as much as 174 billion cubic metres of this
‘surplus’ water from the Brahmaputra and lower Ganga basins in eastern India to the parched
river basins of western and central India where it can be stored. According to the National
Water Development Authority, which is overlooking the project, this would provide
irrigation for an additional 35 million hectares of land. However, researchers at the Indian
Institute of Technology, Bombay, say that the impact of moving such vast volumes of water
could have unintended impacts on the atmospheric feedback loops that regulate
evapotranspiration and precipitation.

‘As the river-interlinking projects aim to utilise most of the surface water for irrigation, it will
increase evapotranspiration over previously unirrigated regions and change the land-
atmosphere feedback and recycled rainfall over India,’ explains Matthew Koll Roxy, a
climate scientist and co-author of the study. Essentially, as the additional surface water
evaporates and cools, it could cause fluctuations in temperature across different land regions
and in neighbouring basins, changing wind patterns and, as such, the movement of clouds and
location of rainfall.

Roxy cautions that large-scale river interlinking could alter rainfall patterns during the Indian
monsoon, reducing September rainfall in the country’s driest regions by up to 12 per cent.
‘The reduction in September precipitation will dry up the rivers in the subsequent months,
amplifying water stress manifolds in various parts of the country,’ the study’s authors report.

Moreover, instead of distributing moisture equally across all basins, the study suggests that
the project could create greater imbalances. ‘While river interlinking can potentially lead to a
reduction in precipitation in arid regions of the country, it can also lead to an increase in
rainfall of up to 10 per cent in some parts of the Ganga, Godavari, and Krishna basins,’ says
Roxy.

Ever since it was first proposed, India’s interlinking of rivers project has been fraught with
controversy, causing disagreements among its many stakeholders. As part of the Ken-Betwa
interlinking project, government documents indicate that around 6,809 hectares of forest land
will need to be cleared. An estimated 10 per cent of the Panna Tiger Reserve, a fragile
deciduous forest that forms a critical habitat in northern Madhya Pradesh for endangered
tigers, stands to be submerged.

Environmentalists and activists have repeatedly raised concerns about the potential impacts to
aquatic ecosystems from the introduction of non-native, invasive species throughout the
NRLP. In 2017, US scientists warned that ‘moving even slightly away from the natural flow
regime (the recorded historical pattern of floods and droughts) can lead to a collapse in the
structure of ecological networks’ and, in 2011, researchers found that any interlinking project
could cause lasting changes in the aquatic system and fish diversity.

In 2018, researchers at the University of Colorado also discovered that river interlinking
could decrease silt deposition in the Ganga and Brahmaputra deltas by 30 per cent, making
the area more vulnerable to sea level rise and coastal erosion. It estimated that discharge from
24 out of 29 rivers assessed would decrease, which ‘may damage wetlands and contribute to
the deterioration of freshwater and estuarine ecosystems.’ According to researchers at the
Indian Institute of Technology, these findings give enough reason to seriously question the
benefits of river interlinking. Roxy emphasises the importance of evaluating the many
potential and unknown impacts before any more work goes ahead.

In October this year, the Indian forest department gave final clearance for a project to transfer
water from the Ken river as it flows through the state of Madhya Pradesh to the nearby Betwa
river. The Ken-Betwa river interlink, which would involve damming the Ken and laying a
canal to the Betwa, is supposed to be the first of 30 proposed river interlinks which would
fundamentally transform India’s river systems.

The original idea was conceptualised in the 19th century by Arthur Cotton, a British general
and irrigation engineer. Cotton suggested connecting all of India’s major rivers to enable
better irrigation and navigation, and to capitalise on what was seen as the paradoxical
phenomenon of having floods in one part of the country while other areas faced drought.

Post independence, despite official enthusiasm for large infrastructure projects, including
hydropower dams, this particular approach did not gain any significant traction. In 1980 the
Ministry of Irrigation (now subsumed under the Ministry of Jal Shakti) prepared a National
Perspective Plan (NPP) “for transferring water from water surplus basins to water-deficit
basins”, but no further government action followed.
In 2002, however, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who was the President of India at the time, made a
speech mentioning the subject. Using the speech, Ranjit Lal, a senior lawyer to the Supreme
Court, filed a public interest litigation in September 2002, and the court pronounced a
judgement soon after asking for the project to be accelerated.

Decisions made based on secret data

In 2012, the Supreme Court came back to the subject and declared in its judgement that that
“these projects are in the national interest, as is the unanimous view of all experts, most state
governments and particularly, the central government”. But environmental experts who were
consulted on the project as members of an expert committee set up as part of the Supreme
Court judgements have regularly raised concerns.

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Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, a
network of activists working in the water sector, was a member of the Ministry of Water
Resources’ expert committee on river interlinking from 2009 to 2011. He told The Third Pole
that while most of the committee members were government appointees who agreed with the
project, independent experts like him, water management pioneer Rajendra Singh and
watershed conservationist Vijay Paranjape often dissented.

One of the major issues for Thakkar was the use of secret hydrological data. “When I asked
for the data as a member of the expert committee, I was told that the Ken is part of the
Ganges basin, an international basin, and [since] hydrology figures of international basins are
a state secret, these cannot be made available [even to the committee members],” he said.

“The hydrology data pertaining to the Ken basin and the Betwa basin is neither in the public
domain nor has it ever undergone any independent public scrutiny. In fact, the rainfall data of
districts the Ken and the Betwa pass through, in the previous four years (2023, 2022, 2021,
2020), is not appreciably different. So why has the Ken basin been categorised as having
surplus water?”

Bhopal Singh, director general of the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) which
is entrusted with the river linking project, disputes this. He told The Third Pole: “the project
was based on detailed hydrological and simulation studies duly accounting [for] the
upstream/downstream needs, environmental flows, etc., in the Ken basin.”

“The hydrological studies were done by the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee,
and examined and reviewed by the Central Water Commission,” Singh added. The NWDA
website carries a detailed project report based on a NIH study conducted in 2003-04, but the
study itself is not included. Singh told The Third Pole that “the entire modelling cannot be
shared”.

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New science may upturn old models

Another urgent issue is that science has moved a far pace from Cotton’s time, and the impact
of interlinking rivers may be much more complicated than was appreciated in the
19th century.

Subimal Ghosh, institute chair professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay’s
Department of Civil Engineering and convener of the Interdisciplinary Program in Climate
Studies, explained that atmospheric water has traditionally not been factored into
consideration of water cycles.

A recent study which Ghosh co-authored found that adjacent river basins do not exist in
isolation, and moving water from one to another may have additional impact due to
atmospheric water. The study builds on the fact that towards the end of the Indian summer
monsoon, when the soil is saturated and evapotranspiration (the supply of moisture from the
land to the atmosphere) is fairly high, recycled precipitation contributes to about 25% of
monsoon rainfall. If water from one basin were to be used to irrigate another basin, the
combination of increased evapotranspiration and wind could reduce the late monsoonal rain
by 12% in some arid regions of the country, and increase rainfall up to 10% in other parts.

“Now we know for certain that altering the terrestrial water cycle can impact atmospheric
processes,” said Ghosh. He argued that there is “an urgent need to include rigorous model-
guided evaluation of hydro-meteorological consequences” for projects like river interlinking.

In response, Singh of the NWDA said that they could not comment on a hypothetical study.
“Considering the scale of meteorological and hydrological cycles in the country, these inter-
basin water transfers to water-short areas are minor in nature … As far as the Ken-Betwa link
is concerned, the majority of harnessed flood water shall be utilised in the Ken basin itself
and some water shall be utilised to fulfil the water needs of other regions including recharge
of existing tanks in the Bundelkhand region,” he added.
Ken River. Photo: Dheeraj Mishra.
The illusion of water surplus

A deeper problem, according to Thakkar, may be that the river basins classified as having a
water surplus are only regarded as such because they are less developed. He pointed out that
districts in the upper Ken basin are largely devoid of water-intensive agriculture, and with
few dams built for storage. In contrast, the lower Betwa runs through agricultural districts
where water-intensive crops are grown, with a fair number of dams. The surplus, he said, is
only an illusion created by the different levels of water utilisation in different geographies.

“Now dams are sought to be built in the upper Betwa region, which will create a shortfall in
the existing lower Betwa basin dams,” said Thakkar. “That shortfall is proposed to be
rectified by water from the Ken basin.”

In response, Singh said that the Ken-Betwa link is not only about the inter-basin transfer of
water – the central premise of river interlinking from Cotton’s time to the Supreme Court
decisions – but also about conserving flood water. Most rainfall occurs in a few days during
the monsoon, and “there are hardly any flows in the Ken during the non-monsoon period,”
said Singh. “The region is also not very rich in groundwater due to hard rock and marginal
alluvium terrain. We expect this project to stabilise the availability of water and improve
water management in the region particularly during drought years.”

Major downstream impacts of river interlinking

Singh’s vision of the total utilisation of water raises its own issues, according to Depinder
Kapur, director of the water programme at the Centre for Science and Environment in Delhi.
“The more river waters we use for agriculture and irrigation and urban consumption, the less
will be left to enter the sea, especially in peninsular India where rivers aren’t fed by
Himalayan waters,” said Kapur.

According to a 2018 study, if all 30 proposed river interlinking projects in the country are
fully implemented, the average annual discharge by the affected basins will reduce by 73%.
While the study focused on impacts to wetlands and estuaries, which would be deprived of
key sources of water, there would also be major ramifications for the ocean.

Also read: Ken-Betwa Link: Jal Shakti Secy Had Rejected Provisions on Water-Sharing
Between UP and MP

A significant fall in the flow of fresh river water into the sea would disrupt the upper layer of
water in the Bay of Bengal, which is made up of low-salinity and low-density water that
helps maintain a sea surface temperature higher than 28 degrees Celsius. This high surface
temperature in turn creates low-pressure areas and intensifies monsoon activity,
explained Mihir Shah, distinguished professor at Shiv Nadar University and former chair of a
new National Water Policy drafting committee set up by the Ministry of Jal Shakti in 2019.

“Rainfall over much of the [Indian] subcontinent is effectively controlled by this layer of
low-salinity water. A disruption in this layer because of the massive damming proposed by
the river interlinks … could have serious long-term consequences for climate and rainfall in
the subcontinent, endangering the livelihoods of a vast population.”
Rivers carry more than water, and sediment would also be held back by new dams built for
river interlinking. This is a critical concern for the deltas of the Ganga–Brahmaputra,
Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri basins, home to more than 160 million people who
would be deeply impacted by sea level rise due to climate change. A new study of the Ganga-
Brahmaputra Delta found that the approximately 1 billion tonnes of sediment that rivers
currently carry each year would increase by 34-60% in the 21st century because of more
monsoon rainfall. More sediment in the delta would help to offset sea level rise and naturally
sustain the delta.

But, as the 2018 study pointed out, if all dams involved in the proposed river interlinking
projects are built, this sediment load would fall by 87%.

Singh of the NWDA responded by saying that sediment trapping by reservoirs and their
impact on deltas was “always exaggerated without proper scientific study”. While suggesting
that such impacts would be “nominal”, he told The Third Pole that the NWDA had “already
initiated system studies of the proposed link projects to study the likely impact of climate
change on hydrology and water availability, demand patterns, surface and ground water
interactions”.

Looking ahead, with the Bharatiya Janata Party having returned to power in Madhya Pradesh
in the November 2023 elections, and with river interlinking having been featured in the
party’s 2019 general election manifesto, it seems likely that work on the Ken-Betwa link will
be prioritised as evidence of the plan making progress.

Charu Bahri is a freelance writer and editor based in Rajasthan.

This article was originally published on The Third Pole.

The plan to link Indian rivers, also known as the National River Linking Project (NRLP),
aims to connect 37 rivers across the country via a network of dams and canals. The project
aims to transfer water from water-excess basins to water-deficit basins to alleviate droughts
and floods. Here are some key points about the plan:

 Background: The idea of interlinking rivers was first proposed in 1919 by Sir Arthur
Cotton, and it was revisited in 1960 by KL Rao. The National Water Development
Agency was established in 1982 to oversee the project

 .
 Objectives: The project aims to alleviate droughts and floods by transferring water from
water-excess basins to water-deficit basins. It also aims to increase irrigation potential and
improve water management
 .
 Components: The project involves linking rivers from the Himalayan and peninsular
regions. The Ken-Betwa Link Project is the pilot component of the national plan
 .
 Challenges: The project faces several challenges, including environmental concerns,
social impacts, and feasibility issues. Critics argue that the project could disrupt monsoons,
alter rainfall patterns, and have unintended ecological consequences
 .
 Status: The project has been approved, but its implementation is stalled due to opposition
from environmentalists and other stakeholders. The Ken-Betwa Link Project is the first to be
implemented, but it is still pending due to ongoing controversies
 .
 Cost: The estimated cost of the project is around $168 billion
 .
 Impact: The project could have significant impacts on the environment, including
changes in evapotranspiration and precipitation patterns, and potential disruptions to aquatic
ecosystems

 .

Overall, the plan to link Indian rivers is a complex and controversial project that has
significant implications for the country's water management and environmental sustainability.

Grand plan to drought-proof India could

reduce rainfall
The major engineering scheme aims to interlink several Indian rivers to support irrigation.
By

 Rishika Pardikar

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
Rainfall in the northeastern state of Odisha might decrease by 12% if India’s river-linking
plans are implemented.Credit: Asit Kumar/AFP via Getty

A gigantic plan to link several of India’s rivers and divert vast volumes of water for irrigation
could result in reduced rainfall in already water-stressed regions, according to a paper 1
published in Nature Communications last month. The water transfer could affect the climate
systems driving the Indian monsoon and reduce September rainfall by as much as 12% in
some of the country’s states, according to the study.

The paper is one of a string of independent research studies into the controversial plan. Some
scientists have cautioned that too little is known about the environmental effects of the river
engineering project for it to be implemented.

The plan, first suggested by British colonial rulers and most recently refined in 2015–16, is
“probably the largest manipulation of India’s hydrology to ever be conceived”, says Jagdish
Krishnaswamy, an eco-hydrologist at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements in
Bengaluru.

The Indian water ministry plans to create a network of 15,000 kilometres of canals and
thousands of reservoirs to transfer 174 billion cubic metres of water annually — roughly
equivalent to the yearly water use of neighbouring Pakistan — from regions with abundant
water to those that are in need of it. The study’s authors write that the goal of the project “is
to keep the maximum possible water — which earlier used to reach oceans from river basins
— on the land to meet the growing water demand of the country”.

Other studies have assessed the potential impacts of the project, including sediment
deposition and the consequences for aquatic ecosystems, but this is the first to assess how the
land and the atmosphere interact to affect the way in which water cycles between them.
Subimal Ghosh, one of the authors of the study and a climate scientist at the Indian Institute
of Technology (IIT) Bombay in Mumbai, describes the water cycle as involving interaction
between atmospheric moisture, oceans, plants releasing moisture and climactic patterns. He
says his team aimed to study “how a river basin in one region impacts atmospheric processes
and therefore impacts other regions as well”.

“River interlinking plans may be useful but we need to have detailed assessments of climatic
impacts,” explains Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical
Meteorology in Pune, and another co-author of the study.

More crops, more water

A core aim of the river-linking plan is to increase the area under irrigation by 35 million
hectares. More crops would lead to higher levels of moisture being released from their leaves
in a process known as evapotranspiration. With more moisture in the air locally, temperatures
would reduce, and rainfall patterns and cloud formation would change.

The team used computer modelling to examine the interplay between rainfall, humidity, soil
moisture, temperature and wind speed across seven river basins for the monsoon months —
June to September. The team did not model other months.

The study found that the effect of the land–atmosphere interaction is highest in September.
“September is when crops are at maturity and evapotranspiration is high,” explains Koll. This
resulted in a reduction in September rainfall in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Odisha and
Andhra Pradesh of between 6.4% and 12%. The researchers also found an increase in
September precipitation of up to 12% in northeastern states Bihar and Jharkhand and up to
10% in the central areas of Maharashtra and neighbouring Telangana.

Reduced rainfall will translate to less flow in rivers in subsequent months, and this could
exacerbate water stress in regions that are already arid, such as Rajasthan and Gujarat, the
authors say.

These effects do not factor in the impact of river flow into the ocean, which can also affect
monsoonal rainfall, they also say.

India’s National Water Development Agency, which oversees the river-linking project, says
it has commissioned studies into the plan by reputable institutions — such as the National
Institute of Hydrology Roorkee, IIT Patna, the National Institute of Technology Warangal
and IIT Guwahati — to look at the long-term effects of the plan and the impacts of climate
change. “These system studies may address the outcome of the study paper,” a spokesperson
for the agency says.

Scientists have welcomed the analysis. The paper highlights new implications of the project,
says Krishnaswamy. “River linking may considerably reduce or neutralize the claimed
benefits of inter-linking.”

Rupa Kumar Kolli, a meteorologist at the International Monsoons Project Office at the Indian
Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune describes the paper as “a very important
contribution”. He hopes that the paper will prompt a more thorough analysis of the river-
linking project before it can go ahead. “There is no going back once the project is
implemented.”