Don't make much of power benefits from Narmada dam; nod for full height "fraught" with inter-state dispute
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| Suhas Paranjape |
By Our Representative
In the years to come, will the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) on
the Narmada river no more remain an inter-state project, as has been widely claimed?
If so far Gujarat government officials have been saying this (read HERE), of
course of the record, now a senior water resources expert has suggested that
this may well happen once the two states – Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh – fully utilize
their share of water. Suhas Paranjape, who has long been associated with people’s
movements on sustainable development, has told Counterview that the benefits of
power – the factor which makes SSP inter-state – will not last forever, and the
neghbouring states should better realize this.
Under the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal (NWDT) award,
Gujarat is supposed to get just 17 per cent of the 1,450 MW of power that will
be produced at the river-bed power plant (1,200 MW) and the canal-head power plant
(250 MW). Significantly, power distribution is the only major factor which
makes the SSP inter-state. As for irrigation, Gujarat is the only beneficiary
of the SSP on getting one-third or nine MAF of water of the Narmada river. Rajasthan
is supposed to be getting very little of water from the SSP – just about 0.5
MAF.
At one point, even Gujarat government officials said the
state was “not interested” in taking the dam height beyond 121.92 metres, where
it was stationary for so long, because it knew that, at this height, not much
power can be produced, and water could be utilized at will. The force of water to
ensure that six the Japan-produced turbines run in full capacity has to be
pretty strong in order to produce 1,200 MW of power, and this can happen only
in case the dam height reaches full reservoir level, 138.68 metres. With the
permission for raise the dam height by putting up sluice gates given by the
Narmada Control Authority (NCA).
Producing power would, however, mean allowing huge amount of
water to flow down the Narmada river, cutting into water flow into canal to
irrigate Gujarat’s parched lands. According to an estimate by a senior official,
if power is produced to full capacity, canals wouldn’t get enough water, it
would mean Gujarat may be able to irrigate half of the land it is supposed to
irrigate from of the Sardar Sarovar dam’s
water – just about 9 lakh hectares (ha) as against 18 lakh ha, which is
supposed to be cultivated once the Narmada command area is fully developed.
Paranjape, in his mail,
has also said that at the present 121.92 metres dam height, “Gujarat can easily
utilize its share of 9 MAF waters the tribunal has awarded.” Irrigation to full
capacity is possible “without raising the height of the dam any further if they
systematically plan to combine local storages with Narmada water”, he adds. However,
he thinks that consequences of raising the dam height have not been fully
understood – its adverse impact would be felt on Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra
the most, especially in the immediate upstream of the Narmada dam.
“As we go higher, the valley gets shallower and shallower,
and for every metre reduction (in dam hegith) the benefit in terms of
submergence saved is much larger. It makes sense to stop where we are now
(around 120 mtres in the gorge portion) and trade off the power benefit against
saved submergence”, Paranjape advises the Madhy Pradesh government, adding, it
should make a strong plea against raising the dam, “because it is going to be
affected by submergence, not Gujarat.”
In fact, Paranjape insists, Madhya Pradesh should “offer to
forgo the power benefit, as it once contemplated”, adding, “If that happens we
also bypass the issue of gates and their technology”, an issue which has become
a hot subject of debate among Narmada engineers (clear HERE). He adds, “Up till
now there was a possibility of incremental additions to height. Now because of
the gates, the decision will have to be 120 or 138, a 0-1 decision, no
intermediate height is possible within the design with gates. Because of this
it is even more urgent to stop right now and think hard on ways to
utilize Gujarat 9 MAF share and not bother with power issues.”
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