One should always remember ...

One should always remember that rivers are not just water stored in some kind of tank that can be diverted or transferred anywhere as needed. I understand that many of the engineering interventions proposed are often well intended. However, nature is governed by its own rules, not by engineering ambitions.

A river is not an isolated system. It is a complex dynamic system that is formed by its watershed which is characterized by its hydrology, geology, terrain, land cover features, rainfall patterns and frequency and all the anthropogenic activities occurring in it. However, the INTERACTIONS and INTERDEPENDENCE of all these factors is often overlooked in developmental planning which create problems. Not a single river is currently managed by watershed approach in India. By interlinking the rivers of different watershed, the issues are going to become more complex and difficult to manage in future.

In context of interlinking of rivers, some of the major factors to consider:

• Pollution : In case of Ganga, frequent use of fertilizers and pesticides in the agriculture sector, is resulting in addition of a number of complex chemicals entering into our rivers and other water bodies. Again not much studies done on the impacts of these chemicals on health and environment. Some of them are even known to be carcinogenic. By linking such river to another river, we are only helping these chemicals to spread more in the environment. Similar fate can be expected for the highly toxic tanneries waste entering Ganga at Kanpur.
• Self-purifying property : Again in case of Ganga, self-purifying property of the Ganga water is attributed to Bacteriophage present in the river, which makes this river different from other rivers. Not much studies done but research is being promoted in this direction. In the absence of enough knowledge base, such properties can be seriously impacted due to interlinking.
• Sub surface flows : The water in the river involves both the surface flows as well as the sub surface flows connecting the ground water aquifers and other surface water bodies present in the watershed. There are not much studies or research done on these interactions. How is the interlinking going to impact these flows?
• Sediment flux: Any hydromorphological alteration (dams/barrages) impacts the sediment transport by the rivers. These sediments play a significant role in fluvial dynamics and ecological processes, and provides nutrients that impact primary productivity, fisheries and coastal ecology.
• Biodiversity : Many of such alterations such as barrages are already seriously affecting species like Gangetic dolphin (mostly near Narora Barrage, where dolphins often get stuck because of low water levels between barrages and have to be rescued) and Hilsa (migration pathways & breeding affected due to Farraka Barrage).
• Invasive species : On linking any two rivers, there can be issues like invasion of fish species from one river to another which can have huge impacts on fisheries and the aquatic ecosystems.
• Salinity Balance : In the coastal areas, where a river meets sea, mangroves and estuaries are sensitive to salinity of the water. Any change in the river flow (due to dams or diversions) will affect the amount of fresh water mixing with the salt water. Such variations in salinity can be hazardous to species dependent on mangroves and estuaries.

And also Climate Change is going to impact the glacier melt, rainfall patterns, frequency and intensity of natural disasters, and many other factors which adds a lot of uncertainty to the river flows. Are these factors seriously considered in the project?