Study: 1,000 dams on Ganga basin obstructing tributaries

NEW DELHI: There are at least a thousand dams on the Ganga basin obstructing the flows of its various tributaries and adversely affecting the overall health of the river system, according to a recent assessment by researchers and experts from multiple organisations.

“Rejuvenating Ganga — a citizen’s report” released during ongoing India Rivers Week, has put together an analysis of why flows in most rivers of the Ganga basin are dwindling, and recommended that the Centre make environmental flows mandatory for the entire basin and not just the main stem of the river.

The Natural Heritage Division of the Indian National Trust for

Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has mapped the dams, barrages and hydroelectric projects based on data from Water Resources Information System of the Central Water Commission, the Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency, and the Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam. “The main reason for declining flows in our rivers is these dams, according to our assessment. Other reasons are ruthless sand and boulder mining, indiscriminate extraction of groundwater and loss of flood plains,” said Manoj Mishra, convener of the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan and river expert who has co-authored the report. The report, which is the summary of a book that organisations such as INTACH, Worldwide Fund for Nature and the Dehradun-based

Peoples’ Science Institute are putting together, says certain stretches of the rivers linked to the Ganga -- such as Betwa, Chambal, lower Yamuna, Sone, Kiul, Damodar and Ganga Sagar -- have recorded more than 50% decline in annual and seasonal flow over a 31-year period between 1975 and 2005. Experts gathered at the Rivers Week proceedings in New Delhi said it was time that the Namami Gange Program of the Centre define the environmental flows (e-flow is a regime of flow in a river that mimics the natural pattern; tt refers to the quality, quantity and timing of water flows required to maintain the components, functions, processes and resilience of aquatic ecosystems that provide goods and services to people) for all tributaries in the Ganga basin.