The National River Linking Project [NRLP] of India

16 2 0 1 2 Water Policy Research India’s National River Linking Project (NRLP), HIGHLIGHT which has been on the drawing board for some three decades, is the largest inter-basin water transfer planned to date in India or elsewhere. The idea has waxed and waned depending upon the political dispensation at any given point in time. Under the Challenge Program for Water and Food, IWMI undertook a broad strategic exploration of The National River Linking the basic idea of NRLP and its assumptions. This Highlight examines few contentious issues of the Project of India NRLP that received considerable attention in the national discourse. And it concludes that the donor Some Contentious Issues basins may have surplus water to make NRLP technically feasible; however, there is need for nuanced analysis of whether, as the best possible option available to India, it is justifiable. Upali Amarasinghe Download this highlight from www.iwmi.org/iwmi-tata/apm2012 THE NATIONAL RIVER LINKING PROJECT OF INDIA 1, 2 SOME CONTENTIOUS ISSUES Research highlight based on a paper with the same title3 INTRODUCTION changing climate. Designed to address these concerns, the Coping with annual floods and droughts has been a ‘National River Linking Project’ [NRLP] envisages paramount concern for India over the millennia. Such transferring water from the potentially water surplus rivers to water scarce Western and Peninsular river basins. ater Policy Research Highlight-16 concerns will increase with a growing population and W Figure 1 The Himalayan and Peninsular components of the NRLP 1This IWMI-Tata Highlight is primarily based on the CPWF Project Number 48 (Amarasinghe 2009) and the five edited books published under the “Strategic Analysis of India's National River Linking Project” of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food Project (Amarasinghe et al. 2009; Amarasinghe and Sharma 2008; Saleth 2009; Kumar and Amarasinghe 2008; IWMI 2009). 2The research for this Highlight is carried out with funding support of the CGIAR Challenge Program for Water and Food Project and International Water Management Institute. It is not externally peer-reviewed and the views expressed are of the author alone and not of IWMI or its funding partners. 3This paper is available on request from [email protected] 2 The NRLP proposes to build 30 river links and more than 3. Ken River to Betwa River and Parbati, Kalisindh 3000 storages to connect 37 Himalayan and Peninsular rivers to Chambal rivers (links 10 and 11); and rivers. 4. some West flowing rivers to the East flowing rivers The NRLP concept was contentious from the outset. The (links 14-16). key disputed issues were the drivers that justified the Project benefits concept, the hydrological and technical feasibility, environmental concerns, peoples’ displacement and The NRLP envisages to: rehabilitation and resettlement, socio-economic costs and • provide additional irrigation to 35 million ha of crop benefits, and lack of attention to alternative water area and water supply to domestic and industrial management options. Yet, addressing public interest sectors; litigation, the Supreme Court of India has enjoined the • add 34 GW of hydro-power potential to the national Government of India to complete the project by 2016. grid; The most recent Supreme Court order in early 2012 has • mitigate floods in Eastern India; and once again aroused the nation’s interest on the NRLP. The ater Policy Research Highlight-16 proponents want fast implementation of the project while • facilitate various other economic activities such as W opponents concentrate on the contentious issues. This internal navigation, fisheries, groundwater recharge, paper examines the merits of only the following three and environmental flow of water-scarce rivers. contentious issues: The NRLP when completed, will increase India's • water surpluses of donor river basins; utilizable water resources by 25 percent, and reduce the • key drivers of justification; and inequality of water resource endowments in different • the potential of alternative options of regions. The increased capacity will address the issue of water management. increasing India's per capita storage. It currently stands at a mere 200 m3/person, as against 5960, 4717 and 2486 The next section gives a brief synopsis of the NRLP and m3 /person for the USA, Australia and China, respectively. the subsequent sections address the above three issues. Project Costs THE NATIONAL RIVER LINKING PROJECT - SYNOPSIS The NRLP will cost more than USD 120 billion (in 2000 The NRLP water transfers envisage easing the water prices), of which shortages in Western and Southern India, while mitigating the impacts of recurrent floods in Eastern India. It • the Himalayan component costs USD 23 billion; constitutes two main components - the links, which will • the Peninsular component costs USD 40 billion; and connect the Himalayan Rivers, and those which will connect the Peninsular Rivers (Figure 1). When • the hydro-power component costs USD 58 billion. completed, the project would consist of 30 river links and Water surpluses of donor river basins 3000 storage structures to transfer 174 billion cubic Donor river basins of the NRLP meters (BCM) of water through a canal network of about 14900 km. The NRLP has three major donor river basins: the Brahmaputra in the Himalayan component, and the Components of the NRLP Mahanadi and the Godavari in the peninsular component. The Himalayan component proposes to transfer 33 BCM Do these river basins have adequate surpluses of river of water through 16 river links. It has two sub component flows for inter-basin transfers? The NRLP project thinks linkings: so. It proposes to transfer 12.3 km3 from the Mahanadi to 1. Ganga and Brahmaputra basins to Mahanadi basin the Godavari basin (link 1 in the Peninsular component), 3 (links 11-14); and and 21.5 km from the Godavari to the Krishna basin (links 2, 3 and 4 in the Peninsular component, which 2. Eastern Ganga tributaries and Chambal and Sabarmati 3 includes 6.5 km of water transferred from the Mahanadi river basins (links 1-10). basin (NWDA 2012). The proposed quantities of water The Peninsular component proposes to transfer 141 BCM transfer from Brahmaputra to Ganga, Ganga to water through 14 river links. It has four sub component Subarnarekha, and then from Subarnarekha to Mahanadi, linkings: however, are not available yet. 1. Mahanadi and Godavari basins to Krishna, Cauvery However, the issue of surplus surface water in the donor and Vaigai rivers (links 1-9); basins is a leading cause of disagreement in the NRLP 2. West-flowing rivers south of Tapi to the north of discourses. An extreme view is that no river basin is Bombay (links 12 and 13); water surplus. Some argue, “…from a holistic perspective there is no surplus water in a river basin, because every 3 drop performs some ecological service all the time… PUWR will be only 890 m3/person by 2050, which is there is no free surplus water in a basin that one can take significantly below what Falkenmark et al. (1989) defined away without a price.” as the threshold below which emerges severe regional A moderate view is that a river basin can have surplus water scarcities. water if there is excess river flow after meeting the The Godavari and the Mahanadi river basins, on the other potential demand of agricultural, domestic and industrial hand, have much lower TRWR, but larger PUWR (Figure sectors and an adequate allocation for the environment. 2 and 3). The total PUWR of Godavari and Mahanadi are Utilizable water resources 77 (=117/151) and 80 (=67/83) percentage of the TRWRs respectively. These basins have six and three percent of The agricultural, domestic and industrial sectors meet the total TRWR of India, and six and two percent of the their water demand from the potentially utilizable water total population. The per capita PUWR of Godavari and resources (PUWR). The PUWR is the portion of the total Mahanadi will be 873 and 2068 m3 per person renewable water resources (TRWR) that can be respectively, indicating emerging regional water scarcities potentially developed for human use. ater Policy Research Highlight-16 in the Godavari basin. W The Brahmaputra has the largest TRWR - 622 3 Water demand of the agricultural, domestic and (=562+24+36) km (Figure 2). This is 27 percent of the industrial sectors TRWR of all river basins in India, although only three percent of the total population lives there. However, due The projections of the National Commission of Integrated to topographical constraints the basin can potentially Water resources Development (NCIWRD) are the first cut develop only four percent of the surface water resources. estimate for the development of the NRLP concept (GoI Along with groundwater, the total PUWR is about 51 1999). The NCIWRD scenario 1 and 2 correspond to low (=24+27) km3 (Figure 2), which is only eight percent and high population projections of 1346 and 1581 million (=51/622) of the TRWR. The water availability under this people by 2050 (Table 1). A recent projection by Figure 2 Renewable water resources and demand in the Figure 3 Renewable water resources and demand in the Brahmaputra basin Godavari basin Potentially utlizable water Potentially utlizable water F 32 2 resources (km3) F 439 123 resources (km3) 9.6 E 30 4 Groundwater E 403 158 Groundwater resources resources 41 31 D 26 8 D 357 205 Water demand 33 36 Water demand from groundwater C 17 18 C 292 269 from groundwater 34 3 B 35 Water demand B 210 351 Water demand 36 from surface water

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