Small Water Storages are Beautiful but Large are Useful too: A Case of Kaleshwaram Project

Nitin Bassi, Ajath Sanjeev and Mahendra Singh Verma

Telangana, the newest state of India, was formed in June 2014 from the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. In terms of surface water, the state is endowed with an overall annual water allocation of 1,288 thousand million cubic feet (TMC), which equals to 36.47 billion cubic metres (BCM), from Godavari river which drains northern parts and Krishna river which drains southern parts of the state. Further, the state has 14.74 BCM of annual replenishable groundwater resources. Since most of the state is semi-arid, availability of water for irrigation during Rabi (winter) season and for domestic uses during peak summers becomes a major issue.

In order to provide water security at large and with the aim of bringing arable land under irrigation to the maximum possible extent, the state is investing both in small scale and large scale water resources projects. About 46,000 small water bodies (mainly irrigation tanks) are under restoration. Further, 10 major irrigation projects and 30 medium irrigation projects have been completed and about 25 others (major and medium) are under implementation.

One such project Kaleshwaram, claimed to be the world’s largest multi-purpose project involving water lift, is expected to end water woes in the state of Telangana. Once completed, it will bring under irrigation about 760 thousand hectares of parched agricultural land in 13 districts and support 785 thousand hectares of irrigated land (under other projects) in seven districts of the state using 169 TMC (4,785 million cubic metres) of the total water lifted from Godavari River. Also, it will supply about 40 TMC (1,132 million cubic metres) of water for drinking purpose to the twin city of Hyderabad and Secunderabad and some villages en route). 16 TMC (453 million cubic metres) water has also been allocated for industries. Being built at an estimated cost of INR 802 billion, the project involves constructing 20 new surface reservoirs creating an additional water storage capacity of about 148 TMC (4,190 million cubic metres).

Though the project is criticised by many on several accounts, it takes centre stage on three aspects. First, in spite of large-scale efforts on restoring and rejuvenating minor tanks in Telangana, they have not produced the intended benefits. Kaleshwaram will fill such tanks and rescue irrigated agriculture in the state. Second, the project further demonstrates that the growing number of metropolitan cities (Hyderabad in this case) has to depend on distant but reliable large surface water sources for meeting their water demands. And third, going forward large scale water infrastructure including the inter-basin water transfers appears to be the preferred option to provide water security in arid and semi-arid regions. The article discusses these three in more detail.

We begin with the criticism part. Though the project is largely beneficial as it ensures water supply for irrigation, industrial and domestic purposes in the dry areas of the state, several articles which appeared in popular media have criticised the Kaleshwaram project but without presenting any facts to support their arguments. 

Using the estimates provided in the Detailed Project Report (DPR), most of such articles have stated that the proposed benefits from the project are inflated. Considering only the monetary benefit from yield increase of various crops, one article questioned the projected benefits presented in the DPR. As per the estimates provided in this article, the farmers at best will get a benefit of Rs 15,000 per acre, whereas the state government would spend about Rs 53,000 per acre towards the operation and maintenance (O&M) costs of the Kaleshwaram project.

Even if one agrees with such analysis, there are many other direct and indirect benefits which such major irrigation projects generate on completion. Such benefits are derived due to: energy savings on account of groundwater pumping from shallow depths as there would be groundwater build-up from recharge from the canal water even during non-monsoon months; low carbon emissions (positive environmental externality) due to reduced energy use for pumping groundwater; improvement in public health on account of availability of clean surface water for domestic uses; and, benefits to local economy due to higher production from the irrigated land, and increased inputs (including for irrigation infrastructure) and labour demand. It is very difficult to assimilate these benefits comprehensively right at the project inception phase and so was the case with the analysis presented in some articles criticising the project.

Going back to our first discussion point, it has already been announced by the Telangana government that the water from Kaleshwaram project would be used to fill the irrigation tanks in the state. Right after its formation, Telangana started planning about enhancing its per capita water storage. In these efforts, it started with an ambitious project titled ‘Mission Kakatiya’ to rejuvenate about 46,000 tanks and lakes of the State by the year 2020. The restoration works sanctioned were de-silting of tank beds, repair of sluices, repairing of feeder channels etc. and is to be completed in a time span of five years.

The mission envisaged enhancing the agriculture based income for small and marginal farmers by accelerating the development of minor irrigation infrastructure, strengthening community based irrigation management and adopting a comprehensive programme for restoration of tanks. The government prioritized the restoration of minor irrigation tanks to restore and enhance their effective storage capacity to 255 TMC (7,725 MCM), so as to fully utilize Telangana’s allocation of water from Godavari and Krishna. But, it was unclear how the surplus water from the Godavari and Krishna rivers could be harnessed by enhancing the storage capacity of the tanks, as the source catchments of the rivers and the tanks are different. 

Nevertheless, vindicating the scepticism voiced by a few researchers, the rehabilitated tanks hardly performed any better than in the past few decades. The major problem was the inadequate inflow from their catchments. However, with the filling tanks in Telangana with the water supplied through Kaleshwaram project, the farmers would be able to provide sufficient irrigation to crops during Rabi season. Of course, this will generate additional benefits for the farmers (in terms of crop yield increase and higher net returns) which might not have been considered while preparing the DPR.

Second aspect is related to the urban water security. There is growing enthusiasm among certain civil society groups and scholars to go for local and decentralised solutions to address water problems of big cities. Often, rain water harvesting and recharging groundwater have been promoted as solutions even for the cities falling in dry regions. Large dams and reservoirs on which large and medium cities most depend for their water supply are criticised for their adverse impact on environment and people who are relocated. But such narratives fail to recognise their importance in overall economic growth and societal welfare. Recent water scarcity in Chennai and Bengaluru where such decentralised approaches were adopted clearly expose the fallacy of these ideas.

In addition to augmenting the existing water supply to the twin city of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, Kaleshwaram project is expected to provide water to the villages en route. Most of these villages are dependent on groundwater-based sources which are highly unreliable and fail to provide water during peak summer months. Perhaps the reliable surface water supply from the Kaleshwaram project will also make administration plan and construct the water distribution system for providing tap water to every household in these villages, thereby realising the targets set under Mission Bhagiratha.

Several concerns have been raised against the large water resources infrastructure projects including the inter-basin water transfers, which is also our third discussion point. The major contentions include: impacts on ecosystem; long delays in completion; and human displacement. In case of Kaleshwaram project too, recently National Green Tribunal (NGT) has agreed to hear the case on challenging the environmental clearance for it. Of late, some have even started criticising such projects citing their role in changing monsoon patterns. 

Apart from getting the environmental clearances (which is mostly negotiated between the government departments), long delays usually happen in major irrigation projects when it comes to completing their tertiary systems, i.e. construction of minors/sub-minors and field channels. One of the most common reasons is high compensation being sought by farmers during acquisition of their land for construction of minors/sub-minors and other project components. As evident from the case of Sardar Sarovar Narmada Project and also Kaleshwaram, even after offering the compensation as per the mutual agreement, sometimes farmers refuse to provide their land and hence delay the completion of project which inadvertently leads to delay in realising full benefits. Nevertheless, the Telangana state government deserves credit for completing all the electro-mechanical works of the Kaleshwaram project in a record time of two years.

Displacement for sure is a sensitive issue and needs careful attention. Government has become stricter with the resettlement and rehabilitation policies. The resettlement and rehabilitation packages offered to the oustees of the Tehri Dam and Sardar Sarovar Narmada Project are worth mentioning. Though in no way it can compensate for the emotions attached to one’s place of birth or inheritance, such projects are necessary for the long-term benefit of population at large. These benefits include: provision of water for irrigation, domestic and industrial uses; employment generation; hydropower generation; flood control; and, environmental and recreational services provided by the reservoir.

Nevertheless, impact on ecosystem is poorly understood as such analyses do not consider the new aquatic habitats (in the form of big reservoirs) which these projects create. Though there are several studies concerning impact on ecosystem in terms of species and aquatic habitat loss due to the water resources development projects in India, there are limited analyses which assign economic value on changes in ecosystem services and benefits pre and post project. Referring to the fish and other aquatic biodiversity, Lakra et al. (2011) observed that large dams, inter-basin transfers and water withdrawal from rivers have negative as well as positive impacts on freshwater aquatic ecosystem. However, they also did not assign any economic value to the loss and the benefits.

Further, to determine impact of dam construction on ecosystem properly, data and information pertaining to hydraulic characteristics of the river, water quality, geomorphological characteristics, aquatic biota and their habitat, riparian vegetation and associated fauna, and the direct use of the resources of the river and its floodplain by local people, would be required (McCartney et al., 2001). Not all of these data sets, especially those on socio-ecology, are readily available in India. 

To conclude, time and again large water infrastructure projects such as Kaleshwaram have helped rescue farmers and community from scarcity conditions. They have also played role in regulating floods. In fact, during summers most of the water supply for domestic purpose is from the big reservoirs. There is no denying the fact that the projects like Kaleshwaram involve huge cost and can take time for completion, but there direct and indirect benefits together outweighs the time and cost involved.   

References

Lakra, W.S., Sarkar, U.K., Dubey, V.K., Sani, R. and Pandey, A., 2011. River inter linking in India: status, issues, prospects and implications on aquatic ecosystems and freshwater fish diversity. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 21(3), pp.463-479.

McCartney, M.P., Sullivan, C. and Acreman, M.C., 2001. Ecosystem impacts of large dams. Background Paper no. 2. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and the United Nations Environmental Programme

Nitin Bassi is Principal Researcher, Ajath Sanjeev is Executive Assistant and Mahendra Singh Verma is Adviser with the Institute for Resource Analysis and Policy (IRAP). Email: [email protected]