Ken-Betwa Project: Bringing rivers closer

On December 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Madhya Pradesh’s Khajuraho to lay the foundation stone for various development projects. Among them was the Ken-Betwa river linking project which plans to transfer more water from the Ken river basin to the Betwa river basin in the Bundelkhand region which includes parts of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

As the Prime Minister flagged off the project, the Congress and a section of environmentalists have raised concerns about the potential impact on the environment, local ecology and wildlife as a major part of the project falls within the Panna National Park and Tiger Reserve of Madhya Pradesh. .

According to the Union Minister of Jal Shakti, the Ken-Betwa linking project (KBLP) is the first of 30 such linking projects under the National Perspective Plan (NPP) for the development of water resources and linking the rivers with ‘surface water’ for those who have them. ‘scarce water’, was created in 1980 by the Minister (then Union Water Department) and the Central Water Commission.

The NPP is divided into two parts – Himalayan Rivers Development which proposes 14 links and Peninsular Rivers Development which plans 16 links, as indicated by the National Water Development Agency (NWDA).

The idea, which was first mooted in 1995 after a feasibility study by NWDA, KBLP, a division of Peninsular Rivers Development, moved slowly. The first major breakthrough, however, was achieved on August 25, 2005 as the Central Government and the governments of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the preparation of a Detailed Project Report (DPR).

Commissioned by NWDA, the report was completed in December 2008 and in February 2009, it was decided that the DPR would be prepared in two phases. In Phase I, Daudhan Dam and associated works, two tunnels, two power houses and a link canal will be installed. On the other hand, the second phase will see the construction of Lower Orr Dam and various barrages.

After a tripartite MoU was signed between the Center and the two countries in March 2021 to start the project, it was finally approved by the Union Cabinet in December that year, with a budget of R44,605 ​​million.

The project plans to transfer the declared residual water of the Ken River by building the Daudhan Dam over it and using a 221 km canal, including a 2 km tunnel, to the Betwa River. Apart from this, the project is expected to generate 103 MW of electric power and 27 MW of solar power.

It also aims to solve the water problems of the drought-hit Bundelkhand region by providing drinking water to 4.4 million people in about 12 districts of Madhya Pradesh and over 2 million people in 10 districts of Uttar Pradesh.

As per the NWDA report, the project is expected to provide annual irrigation to 8.11 lakh hectares and 2.51 lakh hectares of land in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, respectively.

While inaugurating the works at Daudhan Dam on December 25, Mr. Modi said KBLP will bring prosperity to Bundelkhand region. “The people of Bundelkhand struggled to get every drop of water, but the previous governments did not find a permanent solution to the water crisis. Even after seven decades of Independence, disputes over river water between countries continued, but no serious efforts were made to resolve them,” he said.

Spread between the northern parts of Madhya Pradesh and southern Uttar Pradesh, this mountainous region covers 13 districts of the two countries and has long been plagued by drought and water scarcity, which has led locals to migrate to other cities for employment. This region is also one of the most backward socio-economic regions in the country.

Environmental problems

Even as the BJP governments at the Center and in the two states continue to claim the various benefits of the project, several environmental concerns have been flagged.

Among the most prominent is the potential impact on wildlife within the Panna Tiger Reserve as the project is expected to cause massive deforestation, cutting down more than 2.3 million trees with a diameter of 20 centimeters or more on average, and damaging the local landscape. environment due to the construction of Daudhan Dam inside the forest.

Former Union Environment Minister and Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said the project could “submerge more than 10% of the core area of ​​the tiger reserve”. There were also concerns that the project could harm the reserve’s tiger reintroduction program that revived the species’ population after it went extinct in 2009.

Apart from tigers, species like endangered vultures, mahseer fish, and gharials in the Ken Gharial Sanctuary are also feared to be affected.

The Central Government is also yet to release the hydrological data of these two basins which are sensitive because they are small parts of the international Ganga basin.

The Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee (CEC) in a 2019 report also raised the alarm over allowing wildlife in the project, saying authorities had not considered its impact on the Gharial Sanctuary and vulture breeding grounds. It also warned of negative impacts on the rivers and animals in the Ken river and the unique ecosystem of the region.

Experts believe that the data that the government relies on to conclude that the Ken River has surplus water is out of date and they want the latest figures to be released.

Between 2005 and 2008, the then Collector of Panna, Deepali Rastogi, had written to various Central and State Government departments, saying that there was no water left in the Ken River.

In May, 2017, a group of 30 activists and experts wrote to the Minister of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, raising several concerns about the project, including the possible displacement of at least 10 villages in Chhatarpur and Panna districts.