Hydropower projects violating norms may be shut

Minimum supply of water has been mandated

October 22, 2019 03:33 am | Updated 09:13 am IST - NEW DELHI

A view of GVK hydro power project in Srinagar town.

A view of GVK hydro power project in Srinagar town.

Come December, hydropower projects that do not comply with the Centre’s ecological flow notification, which mandates that project developers ensure a minimum supply of water all through the year, could face closure.

The Centre’s ecological flow notification, as it is called, came into effect last October and gave companies three years to modify their design plans, if required, to ensure that a minimum amount of water flowed during all seasons. Power producers generally hoard water to create reserves to increase power production.

In September, the government advanced this deadline, from October 2021 to December 2019. This was after it tasked the Central Water Commission (CWC) to ascertain actual flows and the amount of water present in the river through 2019. There are 19 power projects along the river and of the 11 sites studied, eight were fully compliant.

“What we found was that existing projects can easily comply with these norms, and so we advanced it to December,” said D.P. Mathuria, Technical Director, National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), a Union Jal Shakti Ministry body. “While closure is possible under the Environment Protection Act, we would prefer companies not force our hand. However, we are extremely serious about implementing this notification,” he added.

Power project proponents will be assessed by the CWC quarterly for compliance after December 2019.

The e-flow notification specifies that the upper stretches of the Ganga — from its origins in the glaciers and until Haridwar — would have to maintain: 20% of the monthly average flow of the preceding 10-days between November and March, which is the dry season; 25% of the average during the ‘lean season’ of October, April and May; and 30% of monthly average during the monsoon months of June-September.

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