On Wednesday, December 8, 2021, the union cabinet (India’s highest decision-making body comprising a group of central ministries led by the prime minister) approved the Ken-Betwa River linking project.
It is the first such project to be approved by the Union Cabinet nearly four decades after the Indian Rivers Inter-link project was started.
What is the Indian Rivers Inter-link project?
India has 17.7 percent of the world’s population but only 4% of the world’s water resources. One solution to the country’s water shortage is to connect rivers. The Indian Rivers Inter-link project was conceived to effectively manage water resources in India by connecting Indian rivers through a network of reservoirs and canals.
This project was to improve irrigation and groundwater recharge, reduce persistent floods in some areas, and alleviate water shortages in others.
The National Water Development Agency (NWDA) of the Government of India’s Ministry of Jal Shakti has studied and prepared reports on 30 inter-link projects (14 in the Himalayan region and 16 in the Peninsular region).
The Ken-Betwa link project was one such project first proposed in 1982.
Ken-Betwa River linking project
The Ken River which is a tributary of Yamuna originates in Kaimur Range in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh. It travels a distance of 427 km, before merging with the Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh.
The Betwa is also a tributary of Yamuna. It rises in Vindhya ranges in Madhya Pradesh and flows northeast into Uttar Pradesh. This project entails transferring water from the river Ken, which floods frequently and has excess water, to the River Betwa in the drought-prone Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
This will be accomplished through the construction of the Daudhan Dam and a 221-kilometer-long canal connecting the two rivers.
The project is expected to cost Rs.44,605 crore and will take 8 years to complete. A separate entity called the Ken-Betwa Link Project Authority (KBLPA), will be formed to oversee the project.
Advantages
The project will be extremely beneficial to the water-stressed Bundelkhand region in states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Panna, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Sagar, Damoh, Datia, Vidisha, Shivpuri, and Raisen in Madhya Pradesh and Banda, Mahoba, Jhansi, and Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh are the districts which will benefit by this project.
The major outcomes are:
• Irrigation needs of 10.62 lakh hectares of drought prone area will be taken care of
• The connecting canal to provide drinking water to 62 lakh people
• 103 Megawatts of Hydro Power plus 27 Megawatts of Solar Power will be generated.
Disadvantages
• When a dam is constructed in the path of a river, the stored water floods the surrounding villages. This project is expected to affect 10 villages and 1,585 families. They will lose all of their land and property and will be forced to relocate.
• This canal runs through the Panna Tiger Reserve. This construction will flood 400 hectares of the 4300-hectare Panna Tiger Reserve, which was repopulated with tigers after a total extinction and now has 30 tigers.
• The transfer of water from the Ken basin to the Betwa basin will have an effect on the ecosystem. Loss of habitat and migratory routes for wildlife and birds in the canal’s construction areas will result in Biodiversity loss.
The government has stated that wildlife will be protected at any cost, while also claiming that the Bundelkhand region is prone to drought and that the Ken-Betwa project is required. The Wildlife Institute of India has been tasked with developing a comprehensive landscape management strategy that will minimize the level of environmental damage.
