INTERLINKING OF

RIVERS
Presented By:-
16BCE1028
16BCE1029
16BCE1030
16BCE1031
16BCE1032
16BCE1033
16BCE1034
16BCE1035
16BCE1036
 CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Reasons
• NRLP (national river linking project)
• Plan of NRLP
• Benefits
• Issued cause to NRLP
• Conclusion
• Reference
 INTRODUCTION
• India accounts for 2.4% of the world’s surface area but
supports 16.7% of the world’s population. India
possesses meager 4% of world’s water resources, that
too highly uncertain in time and space due to its
climate. Still, In dia possesses dismal per capita storage
capacity compared to those countries where rainfall is
more or less evenly distributed in time and space .
• River Linking is a project of linking two or more rivers
by creating a network of manually created canals, and
providing water to the land area s that does not have
river water access and reducing the flow of water to sea
using this means .
 Per capita storage in cum

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000 Per capita storage in

cum
2000

1000

0
North Russia Australia China India
America
 REASONS

• Regional Rainfall Variation

• Increasing Population and Food Demand
• To Control Floods & Droughts
 Regional Rainfall Variation

• The rainfall over the country is primarily associated with tropical

depressions originating in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The
summer monsoon accounts for more than 85 % of the precipitation.

• Large parts of Haryana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan,

Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are not only in
deficit in rainfall but also subject to large variations, resulting in
frequent droughts and causing immense hardship to the population
and enormous loss to the nation .
•The water availability even for drinking purposes becomes
critical, particularly in the summer months as the rivers dry
up and the ground water recedes.

• Regional variations in the rainfall lead to a situations when

some parts of the country do not have enough water even for
raising a single crop. On the other hand excess rainfall
occurring in some parts of the country create havoc due to
floods.
Futuristic Demand Of Irrigation

• Irrigation using river water and ground water has been the prime factor
for raising the food grain production in our country from a 50 million
tonnes in the 1950s to more than 200 million tonnes at present, leading
us to attain self-sufficiency in food.
• Irrigated area has increased from 22 million hectares to 95 million
hectares during this period.
• At present estimate the "ultimate" irrigation potential of the country
being stated as 113 million Ha.
 To Control Floods & Droughts

1 Floods are a recurring feature, particularly in Brahmaputra and Ganga rivers, in which
almost 60 % of the river flows of our country occur.
2 Flood damages, which were Rs. 52 crores in 1953, have gone up to Rs. 5,846 crores in
1998 with annual average being Rs. 1,343 crores affecting the States of Assam, Bihar,
West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh along with untold human sufferings.
3 On the other hand large areas in the States of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu face recurring droughts. As much as 85 % of drought prone
area falls in these States.
 NRLP

1 The National River Linking Project (NRLP) is designed to

ease water shortages in western and southern India while
mitigating the impacts of recurrent floods in the eastern parts
of the Ganga basin.
2 The NRLP, if and when implemented, will be one of the
biggest inter basin water transfer projects in the world.
 Contours of NRLP

• Building 30 links, 3000 small and large

reservoirs, 12500 km of canals to link 36
Himalayan and Peninsular rivers to
effect 178 km3 of inter-basin water
transport.
• 35 million ha of new irrigated area; 35
• GW of hydro-capacity; navigation and
flood control benefits.
• Gestation Period: Proposed=2016;
Most Likely=2050
• Cost = Rs 560,000 cr. at 2016 prices
(US $ 120 Billion); 1 - 1.5% of India’s
GDP
for the next 3 decades.
Goal purpose
• Support South Asia’s • Promote a balanced,
quest for food livelihoods analytical and informed
and water security. national discourse on India's
Water Future 2050.

• Capitalize on the •Approaches to shaping it,

uncommon opportunity including through the River-
created by the NRLP Linking project.
 HIMALAYAN DEVOLOPMENT

• The northern component would consist of a series of dams built along

the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers in India, Nepal and Bhutan for the
purposes of storage.
• Canals would be built to transfer surplus water from the
eastern tributaries of the Ganga to the west.

• The Brahmaputra and its tributaries would be linked with the

Ganga and the Ganga with the Mahanadi river.

• This part of the project would provide additional irrigation for about
220,000 square kilometers and generate about 30 GW of electricity.
 PENINSULAR DEVOLOPMENT

•First, the Mahanadi, Godavari. Krishna and Kaveri rivers would all be
linked by canals. Extra water storage dams would be built along the
course of these rivers. The purpose of this would be to transfer
surplus water from the Mahanadi and Godavari rivers to the south
of India.

•Second, those rivers that flow west to the north of Mumbai and the
south of Tapi river would be linked. The water would be used by the
urban areas of Bombay and also to provide irrigation in the coastal
areas of Maharashtra
 PENINSULAR DEVOLOPMENT

•Third the Ken and Chambal rivers would be linked in order to

provide better water facilities for Madhya Pradesh and Uttar
Pradesh.

•Finally a number of west-flowing rivers along the Western

Ghats simply discharge into the Arabian Sea.

•The Peninsular part of the project would provide additional

irrigation to 130,000 square kilometers and generation an
additional 4GW of power
 BENEFITS

I. Irrigation - By linking of rivers vast amount of land areas which does not
have otherwise irrigated and unusable for agriculture become fertile.
II. Flood prevention – By creating network of rivers flood & drought
problem can be greatly avoided by channeling excess water to areas that
are not experiencing a flood or are dry. This works similar to canal system
in Netherlands to channel excess water from sea.
III. Generation of electricity - With new canals built, feasibility of new DAMS
to generate hydroelectric power becomes a possibility.
IV. Navigation - Newly created network of canals opens up new routes and
ways and routes of water navigation, which is generally more efficient and
cheaper compared to road transport.
V. Higher GDP Growth -By interlinking rivers, there will be a boost and increased
employment in agricultural sector, power, transportation; construction etc.
Interlinking can increase the GDP by 5to 6 %.

VI. Business Opportunities – It is expected to generate large-scale business

opportunities in manufacture of mechanical equipment's, earthmovers, stone
crushers, power shovels, other transportation vehicles, etc. In addition, this project
would also require large scale manufacturing of construction materials such as an
estimated 56 million tones of cement and 2 million tonnes of steel etc.

VII. Drinking Water - Majority of our population will get drinking water; Special
emphasis is that all the cities connected by Golden quadrilateral project will get
drinking water.

VIII. Revenue- The government is expecting revenues from benefits of navigating

through waters, increased tourism, joint ventures, private initiatives and cess on
waters
1. Ecological issues – Major concern being the argument that rivers
change their course in 70–100 years and once they are linked, future
change of course can create huge practical problems for the project.

2. Aqua life – A number of leading environmentalists are of the opinion

that the project could be an ecological disaster. There would be a
decrease in downstream flows resulting in reduction of fresh water
inflows into the seas seriously jeopardizing aquatic life.
3. Deforestation –Creation of canals would need large areas
of land resulting large scale deforestation in certain area.

4. Areas getting submerged - Possibility of new dams comes

with the threat that habitable or reserved land getting
submerged under water.

5. Displacement of people –As large strips of land might

have to be converted to canals, a considerable population
living in this areas must need to be rehabilitated to new
areas
 CONCLUSION

u Considering the pragmatic view of all the issues raised it can

be concluded that implementation of this ambitious scheme is
not possible in foreseeable future.

u Hence it can be a better option to concentrate on the local

resources and think upon the alternatives available.
 REFERENCE

•Indian Rivers Inter-link Wikipedia

•NWDA (2006)
•http://wrmin.nic.in/forms/list.aspx#ctl00_contentpage