https://journal.probeinternational.org/2016/04/28/why-linking-rivers-wont-work/India’s proposed Interlinking of Rivers (ILR) project would entail the creation of 3,000 large dams and “environmental tinkering on an epic scale”. Proponents say ILR is the “only way forward” for a country facing a projected population of 1.6 billion in 2050. Detractors say “there’s simply no evidence to justify what the government wants to attempt”...
NWDA director-general S. Masood Hussain, 56, who has over three decades’ experience in designing mega dam projects, including the Indira (Narmada) Sagar, says the ILR will double India’s current 42,200 megawatt hydropower generation (from medium and major projects), adding 34 additional gigawatts to the capacity. Also designed to irrigate 35 million monsoon-dependent hectares, Masood says ILR is the only realistic means to raise the country’s irrigation potential from 140 million to 175 million hectares by 2050, when the population is projected to touch 1.6 billion.....
But ‘unofficial’ estimates published by the Delhi-based South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) say the project will displace nearly 1.5 million people from their homes. This caused by the submergence of at least 27.66 lakh hectares of land needed for the storage structures and the network of planned canals. And it’s not just the human cost. The overall land area going under includes 104,000 hectares currently under natural forest cover, including reserves and sanctuaries.
It will also be an astronomically expensive adventure. Initially pegged at Rs 5.6 lakh crore at 2002-03 prices, Union water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation minister Uma Bharti tells india today that “ILR will now cost Rs 11 lakh crore”. This includes cost of land acquisition, compensation and construction. Hussain says final cost outlays for individual links will only be known after the “detailed project reports (DPRs) have been techno-economically approved” in each case....
