🚩 Connecting the Rivers of India.🚩 @✒GBG⚔

1.  It is essential to save rivers of India, and for that all rivers, which can  possibly  be connected, must be connected.

2.  It is essential that rivers with surplus water, be connected to undercharged rivers via canals and tunnels, to give them a new life.

3. There are floods in Bihar and Punjab every year. If  Kali ganga and Sharda river in Uttrakhand and Ravi, Beas and Satluj waters in Punjab can be better managed,  it will not only stop the menace of floods, but help irrigate more lands, and provide healthy drinking water to millions of Indians. Let's take the Ravi, Bea's Satluj group as an example.

4. To make things simple, as per Indus river treaty, the Indus and it's five major tributaries, namely 'Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Satluj, are jointly called the Indus river system.

5.  The rivers are further divided in to two groups, the Eastern and the Western rivers.

6.  The western rivers are Indus, Chenab and Jhelum. The eastern rivers are Ravi, Beas and Satluj.  India is free to harness the westetn rivers for generating hydroelectricity, via ROR projects, [Run of the River projects.] but it can not choke the waters of these rivers to the extent of reduction of flow in to Pakistan.

7.  The eastern group of rivers, that is Ravi, Beas and Satluj however are a different ball game.  Not only is India authorised to use them asmuch as it likes, for  hydroelectric power generation, but it is also free to create  dams and canal networks for irrigation, although  with a rider that not more than 20% of their water can be diverted.

8.  Thus,  once again to clarify  the status of river water distribution, amongst the two neighbours, let us finally understand that  India has the right to generate hydroelectricity through run-of-the-river (RoR) projects on the western rivers.

9.  To utilise the waters of  eastern rivers, India has absolute rights over it's share of 20% water of these  rivers, which amounts to India having right to generate large scale hydro electric power, aswellas build dams and irrigation canals to harness as much hydro-electric power as it can, and also divert 20% water of these eastern rivers, as and where it desires.

10.  In light of the above, India has constructed the Bhakra and Nangal Dams on Satluj, Pong and Pandoh Dams on Beas and Thein Dam (Ranjitsagar) on Ravi.

11.   These storage works, together with other works like Beas-Sutlej Link, Madhopur-Beas Link, 2nd Ravi Bea's link,  and Indira Gandhi Nahar Project will all help India utilise nearly it's entire share  of the eastern river waters, but only when all these projects are functional under proper coordination.

12.   The present situation is that inspite of major dams on Satluj, it floods Punjab during monsoon, as the present dams can not retain the monsoon inflow, whereas the dry spell forces the dams to use minimal water resource, there by disturbing regularity of production of hydro electric power aswellas supply of water available for irrigation. .

13. On the other hand Punjab refuses to part with a drop of water, to flow in  to SYL canal, created to irrigate areas of Punjab and Haryana  aswellas to recharge the dying Yamuna.

14.  The waters of Ravi on the other hand are underutilized. Inspite of a huge dam called Ranjit Sagar Dam , aka Thein dam and canal networks, India is still not using it's fair share of water of Ravi.

15.  After electricity generation, the water from Madhopur headworks goes to Pakistan unchecked, and is wasted as far as India is concerned.

16.  So what is the Solution ❓ Well friends the solution is to get India's surplus share of Ravi waters to fall in to Beas, via tunnels, canals or overbridge canals. Beas is already connected to Satluj, and further such connections can be created. This will ensure surplus supply of Ravi water in to Beas,  ultimately to Satluj and, after Satluj has surplus water all year around,  SYL shall  become a reality, as dams on Satluj, existing as well as new ones, will always have enough water, to keep SYL FLOWING.

17.   Kali  river, also called KaliGaad or KaliGanga,  emerges from Kalapani area of Indo-Nepal border,  in Uttarakhand. It too has surplus water, which falls in to Ghagra river,  causing floods in UP and Bihar. This river can be harnessed  with minimal effort, and it's surplus waters can be conjoined with already existing natural channels like Tons river flowing through Uttrakhand,  to recharge Yamuna at Paonta Sahib. If this projected vision sees daylight, not only will Uttrakhand become a major producer of electricity, but courtesy small lakes and micro hydro projects on Tons river, it will give a boost to this state's tourism aswell. As a multiplier effect,   Haryana too will have surplus water for irrigation, and Yamuna will be fully charged too, ultimately helping Ganga become cleaner and more navigable, yamuna being it's major tributary.

18. It is worth mentioning here that the decision of joining India's rivers is not new, but for long now, the required initiative on the issue has been missing.  It is by all means  an  adorable decision of PM, to press the agenda further. I feel NaMo must continue to press forward this policy, as a major step towards building a more united and prosperous India.
©✒ Guru Balwant Gurunay.⚔

No comments:

Post a Comment