Date: 10/12/2022

Relevance: GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors; GS-1: Geographical features and their location- changes in critical geographical features (water bodies)

Key Phrases: Ken-Betwa Link Project, Interlinking River, National Water Development Agency (NWDA), National Perspective Plan (NPP), Peninsular Rivers Component, the feasibility of intra-states links.

Why in News?

• The government has approved the implementation of the Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP), one of the links under the Peninsular Rivers Component, in December 2021 with an estimated cost of ₹44,605 crores with central support of ₹39,317 crores through a special purpose vehicle - Ken Betwa Link Project Authority.

Benefits of Inter linking the rivers in India:

• Reduce regional imbalance:
  • The large temporal and spatial variation in the availability of water in the country leads to recurrent floods in some parts, while some other parts experience drought.
  • The interlinking of rivers program has been envisaged to reduce regional imbalance in the availability of water.
• Mitigate floods:
  • The National Perspective Plan (NPP) for water resources development was formulated by the government of India in 1980 for providing storage and transfer of surplus waters to water deficit regions to mitigate the effect of annually recurring floods and also to minimize the incidence of droughts.
• Irrigation and other benefits:
  • By linking the rivers, a vast amount of land areas that will not otherwise be irrigated and are unusable for agriculture become fertile.
• Generation of electricity:
  • With new canals built, the feasibility of new dams to generate hydroelectric power becomes a possibility.
• Transportation:
  • A newly created network of canals opens up new routes and ways of water navigation, which is generally more efficient and cheaper compared to road transport.
• Potable water:
  • The government is implementing Jal Jeevan Mission - Har Ghar Jal, since August 2019, in partnership with states, to make provision for potable tap water supply in adequate quantity, of prescribed quality, and on a regular and long-term basis to every rural household by 2024, and river interlinking will help in this project.
• Reduce dependence on Monsoon:
  • As Indian agriculture is ‘Gambling with monsoons’, the major benefit will be taken by the farmers who need not depend on the untimely rains for agricultural processes.
• Other benefits:
  • Augmenting domestic and industrial water supply, employment generation, fisheries, salinity control, pollution abatement, groundwater recharge, etc.

Challenges:

• Aqua life:
  • Several leading environmentalists are of the opinion that the project could be an ecological disaster.
  • There would be a decrease in downstream flows resulting in a reduction of freshwater inflows into the seas seriously jeopardizing aquatic life.
• Deforestation:
  • Creation of canals would need large areas of land resulting in large-scale deforestation in certain areas.
• Topography:
  • For the interlinking of the rivers, canals will be built, and that will change the topography of the region.
• Areas getting submerged:
  • Possibility of new dams comes with the threat of large otherwise habitable or reserved land getting submerged under water or surface water.
  • For instance, the Ken-Betwa River Interlinking (KBRIL) Project will lead to the submergence of a major portion of the core area of the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh.
• Displacement of people:
  • As large strips of land might have to be converted to canals, a considerable population living in these areas must need to be rehabilitated to new areas.
• Dirtying of clean water:
  • As the rivers interlink, rivers with dirty water will get connected to rivers with clean water, hence dirtying the clean water.
• International issues:
  • There is a lack of an international legal framework for the projects India is proposing.
  • In at least some inter-link projects, neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh may be affected, and international concerns for the project must be negotiated.
• Inter-state disputes:
  • River water has no boundary and flows across different states. Hence River water remains a matter of dispute between the states normally.
  • Interlinking of those already disputed rivers can further worsen the situation between the states.

Conclusion:

• The interlinking of rivers project is a major challenge and an opportunity to deal with water-related problems such as drought, floods, climate change, and so on.
• The long-term strategy for the water deficit problem lies in making the interlinking of rivers challenging by building a network of dams, reservoirs, barrages, hydropower structures, and canals throughout the geographical regions of the country.
• However, the interlinking of rivers is a good solution for the shortage of water, but interlinking has to take place after a survey and detailed study to overcome the possible challenges in its implementation.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. What are the advantages and challenges of river interlinking projects in India? Discuss.