People from several prominent groups including AID played an advisory role for the report.

Major Findings   | Preface | Executive Summary | Full Report

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has published a report on the ‘Performance and Development Effectiveness of the Sardar Sarovar Project’.  The Report has weighed the benefits of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) like irrigation, drinking water and power generation with the financial costs, human (displacement & rehabilitation) and environmental costs. 

The major findings of the Report are:

1. Irrigation Benefits: The maximum irrigation ulitisation has stagnated at 1.53 lakh ha in Gujarat (as per the Socio‐Economic Review for Gujarat, 2007‐08), as against the projected 17.92 lakh ha. (see map ) In Rajasthan, the irrigation potential of 73,000 ha has not been realised at all. Much of the irrigation benefits have not been realised because of delays in the creation of canal networks; as on December 31, 2007 only about 19% of the canal network is completed in Gujarat.

2. Drinking Water Benefits: The performance vis‐a‐vis drinking water supply from the SSP in the districts surveyed in Gujarat has remained at only 29%–33% of the actual potential; this is partly because much of the drinking water has been diverted for power plants & industrial use, thereby decreasing the availability for domestic use. As per the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) Report of 2006, overall allocation to power plants and industries in Gujarat went up from 0.20 MAF to 1.00 MAF. This also meant that the allocation for domestic use was reduced to 0.06 MAF from the original allocation of 0.86 MAF.

3. Power Benefits: The actual realisation of power benefits projected at 3,601 MU (million units) in 2006–2007 has not been consistent with the dam height achieved at 121.92 m. This was due delay in the commissioning of the river bed powerhouse and also in installing the power turbine generators. The increase of the dam height from 110.64 m to 121.92 m attributed to 1500–1700 MU of surplus of which only 550 MU was attributable to increased height. Power generation has been one of the main arguments for increasing the dam height in SSP. Indeed the installed capacity of SSP is 1,450 MW (mega watts), it has been estimated that actual power generation will only be 425 MW in the early stages of the project, diminishing to 50 MW by the time all water allocation for Gujarat is used for irrigation.

4. Financial Costs: According to the report of the ‘Working Group on Water Resources for the 11th Five Year Plan’, the total cost of the SSP has already touched Rs 45,673.86 crores, and are likely to go up to Rs 70,000 crores by 2012, as against Rs 6,406.04 crores at 1986‐1987 price levels. The CAG report on Gujarat (Commercial) for the year ending 31 March 2001 criticised the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL) for indiscriminate market borrowings. In the period 2001–06, the CAG reports indicated that almost 53% of the expenditure, to the tune of Rs. 5586 crores was related to debt repayment by SSNNL. Thus SSP seems to favour a few financial investors at the huge cost on public exchequer.

5. Human Costs: This study estimates that the cumulative number of families that are yet to be rehabilitated at the present height of 121.92 m and those to be affected if the height is increased to FRL i.e. 138.64 m, is approximately 40,000 in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Of those who have been rehabilitated, the state governments have not complied with the binding rehabilitation norms of the Supreme Court & NWDTA (Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award) of providing project displaced with cultivable and irrigable land, and alternative house plots with civic amenities in rehabilitation villages. Instead the M.P government diluted such entitlements by disbursing cash in lieu of land through Special Rehabilitation Package (SRP).

6. Environmental Costs: Catchment Area Treatment has not taken off leading to soil erosion and siltation in reservoir, both contributing to degradation of water quality and implications to life span of the dam. NCA reports that compensatory afforestation has been completed in 42,064 acres of land in Gujarat, MP and Maharashtra. But field assessments on 1242 acres of land have determined that 86% of the afforested areas are found to be highly degraded with little or no tree cover. About 52% of the command area faces high to very high probability of water logging and salination resulting in crop loss.

The Report clearly brings out the fact that the projected benefits of the SSP dam upto the current height of 121.92 m are yet to be fully harnessed and realised, while the costs (human, financial and environmental) for further dam construction are unconvincing. The Report strongly recommends that the dam height at 121.92 should not be raised further by installing 17 m high radial gates, at least until past obligations are fulfilled and the benefits of 121.92 m height are fully realised.

S. Parasuraman
Director
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai