Inequity of Hydropower

Dr Bharat Jhunjhunwala
Our forefathers gave the formula Dharma-Artha-Kama-Moksha for good governance. ‘Dharma’ here should be understood as holistic welfare of the people. ‘Artha’ stands for economic growth and ‘Kama’ stands for consumption. Moksha is, of course, spiritual salvation. The formula states that money should be earned in a way that does not hit at the holistic welfare of the people; and consumption should be undertaken such that economic growth is not hit. This principle has been enshrined in law via the concept of ‘Public Good’ superseding private interests. Advertisements of cigarettes and liquor are banned because they lead to public harm even though they may be beneficial for the economy.
Making of hydropower projects on the Ganga hits at Moksha. Water of the Ganga flows beneath the shrines of Kedarnath and Badrinath. The water brings spiritual charges from these shrines. These charges are contained in the molecular clusters of water. Molecules of H2O do not exist in individual chaotic state. They form six-cornered clusters with different designs. Japanese scientist Masaru Emoto has shown that clusters of spiritually charged waters display very different designs when compared with polluted water. There are no clusters in distilled water. These clusters get destroyed when the water hits at the turbine blades. The water that comes out from turbines is spiritually ’empty’. Proof is that pilgrims are increasingly going to Gangotri. They do not find water at Haridwar as invigorating as it was previously. My friend living at Knnauj in the plains also complained that water of the Ganga has lost its freshness. Such loss of spiritual power would take place in other holy rivers like Narmada and Krishna as well.
The Srinagar hydropower project is under construction at Srinagar on the Alaknanda which is the major tributary of the Ganga. The Dhari Devi Temple is located in the submergence zone of the 30 km long reservoir of this project. The Temple consists of a Holy Rock akin to one at Vaishno Devi. An idol has been placed in front of the rock. Adi Shankaracharya is believed to have done penance here. He had fallen sick. Then Dhari Devi appeared before him in form of a village girl and told him to seek relief from Brahman alone because, she said, Adi Shankaracharya believed in Brahman alone. Then Shankaracharya accepted his folly and worshipped Dhari Devi and was cured. The Company making the project has proposed to submerge the Holy Rock and reinstall the idol at a platform built on pillars at the same location. This means that mankind will be deprived of the spiritual charges of the rock forever. It is like submerging Hemkund Sahib, Mecca or Jerusalem for the generation of hydropower. The hydropower projects on the Ganga are, therefore, contra Moksha.
There are four dimensions of Dharma here. First dimension is of environment. The endangered Mahseer fish lives in the lower Ganga. It migrates to upper Ganga to lay eggs. This migration will not be possible because the Srinagar Dam on Alaknanda will obstruct its path just as Tehri has done on the Bhagirathi. Moreover, all aquatic life like worms and tortoise downstream will be affected because the sediments and debris will be trapped in the reservoir of Srinagar Dam. This is their food. About 350 hectares forest will be submerged in the reservoir leading to loss of biodiversity.
Second dimension of Dharma is of equity. The Directive Principles enshrined in our Constitution require the State to minimize the inequalities in income. Hydropower does exactly the opposite. The environmental loss is mostly borne by poor people. They are deprived of sand and fish. They fall sick due to breeding of mosquitoes and emission of poisonous gasses from reservoirs. Their water sources go dry due to blasting in the mountains for making tunnels. Their houses develop cracks. The livestock do not get fodder as the forests are depleted. The electricity generated, on the other hand, is used by the urban rich for running air-conditioners. The State Government gets 12 percent free power. It sells this to generate revenue. Fifty percent of the revenue is used up in paying salaries and pensions to government officials. In this way hydropower transfers resources from poor to the rich.
Third dimension is of the nation’s energy security. The demand for electricity is increasing mainly for purposes of consumption. It has become commonplace for a family of four to burn electricity worth Rs 25,000 per month. Air-conditioners run 24 hours. Some have heated swimming pools. It is simply not possible to meet the demand for electricity arising out of such consumption. We are becoming dependent on imports of oil, coal and uranium to meet this unending demand. Our economy will come to its knees in mere 15 days if the West Asian countries stop the supply of oil. It is simply not possible to meet this demand even if Manmohan Singh succeeds in tapping every inch of every river in the country for generation of hydropower as he plans to do. We must put in place measures to reduce consumption of electricity instead of following this dead end and spoiling our rivers in the process.
Fourth dimension is of international politics. The developed countries want India to reduce thermal generation because the developed countries are affected by the carbon emissions. They want India to increase hydropower generation because the negative environmental impacts are mostly local. The result is doubly harmful for us. We will be affected by the carbon emissions from thermal power generation by the developed countries. Additionally we will bear the negative environmental effects of hydropower. Correspondingly the developed countries will be doubly benefitted.
The hyped-up economic benefits from hydropower are also unreal. Hydropower companies only bear the direct costs of generation such as depreciation, interest, labour charges and cost of 12 percent free electricity given to the home state. The indirect costs such as those borne by the local people are not accounted for. People living in the plains also bear many costs. Fewer floods are leading to less recharge of groundwater and affecting agricultural production. Trapping of silt in the hydropower reservoirs is depriving our coasts of sediment renourishment and leading to coastal erosion. Pilgrims are deprived of the pleasure of taking bath in pristine waters. These indirect costs are considerable. My calculations show they are more than double the direct costs that are borne by the generation companies. Hydropower is a loss proposition if all indirect costs are accounted for. Hydropower hits at economic growth because the benefits are less than the total costs.
Hydropower generation, especially from our Holy Rivers like Ganga, Narmada and Krishna is wholly against the objectives of Dharma, Artha and Moksha. This is being pushed by the government to transfer resources from the poor to the rich and to fulfill the objectives of western materialist culture that sees human beings only as consumption machines bereft of any joy of nature.

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