Sardar Sarovar dam water level altered, displaced residents left with ruined homes, no compensation

Jagdish Singh Tomar, 73, a resident of Ekalwada village in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district, had to leave his ancestral home after the Narmada floods in September last year. Many quintals of his chickpea and soybean harvest were damaged in the flood. His house now appears to be in ruins, with no one living in it. Some portions of the house still smell of rotten grains even after months.

Like Jagdish, Manoj Tomar’s house was also damaged in the floods. He moved to his new house in Ekalwada Rehabilitation Site-2, about four kilometres away. Jagdish has also received land in the same area, but his house has not been built yet. He has no option but to take shelter in Manoj’s house.

“Even during the time of my ancestors, such massive floods were unheard of. My three brothers are living elsewhere, and I am living here in Manoj’s house because my house is not yet built,” says Jagdish.

This village lies in the upstream backwater area of ​​the Sardar Sarovar dam built on the Narmada river.

The Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal Award had fixed the maximum water level of Sardar Sarovar dam at 141.21 metres, while the backwater level was revised to a maximum water level of 137.21 metres.

The annual report of the Narmada Valley Development Authority – a unit of the Madhya Pradesh government – mentions a change in backwater level due to which the number of villages and families that have been declared affected by the backwater submergence has also been changed.

The number of submergence-affected villages in Madhya Pradesh has reduced from 360 to 176 and the number of families from 37,754 to 21,808. The families now declared not affected, won’t get rehabilitation compensation or arrears.

Mismanagement

According to the Narmada Bachao Andolan, in 1984, the Central Water Commission had assessed the submergence area of ​​Narmada and determined the backwater level. In 2007, the Narmada Control Authority formed a new committee and in 2008, the backwater level was determined without conducting a ground survey.

Due to this, 15,946 families living in 193 villages in Dhar, Barwani, Khargone and Alirajpur districts were considered out of the submerged area and are now not getting the outstanding share of rehabilitation compensation.

Devi Singh Tomar, 63, another villager from Ekalwada, said, “My house was acquired in 2002, and I was given a plot in 2004-’05. But after being shifted out of the submergence area in 2008, I am not getting the compensation money and now it is being said that this is because where I live, that area is out of the submergence area.”

Jagdish Tomar says, “Before 2009, our village was in the submergence zone, but after that it was taken out.” Regarding the last submergence, he holds the Narmada Control Authority and other government agencies accountable and says that they are terming the mismanagement of the dam as a natural disaster.

Devi Singh’s house is situated at a higher level than Jagdish Singh’s house. Showing his flood-affected house and the mark left by the rising water level, he says, “On September 16 [last year], the water level in Narmada rose since morning. By 6 pm, the water level had touched 139 metres and by 9 pm, it had touched 142 metres.”

Devi Singh says, “In the year 2007-’08, the backwater level of our village changed, due to which my house, which was earlier in the submergence area, was moved out of it. When we asked the officials about this, we were told that the model of the dam has been changed due to which the water in Ekalavada village will no longer go above the level of 139 metres.”

Documents obtained by Mongabay India mention that the backwater level in 193 villages has changed from 1.93 to 6.68 metres in an assessment done by the Narmada Control Authority in 2008. For example, the old backwater level of Lasan village in Dhar tehsil of Dhar district was 151.69 metres, which was later reduced by to 145.01 metres. The level in Ekalwada village of Manawar tehsil of Dhar district was reduced from 143.04 to 139.52 metres. But, on September 16, 2023, it crossed that limit.

The Devendra Pandey Committee constituted by the Union Forest and Environment Ministry also termed this redetermined backwater level of Sardar Sarovar Dam as unscientific and full of flaws. A copy of this report is available with Mongabay India.

The committee report said that the recalculated backwater level calculation by the Narmada Control Authority cannot be accepted as it is in violation of the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal Award. Also, as per the award, the backwater level should be calculated by the Central Water Commission and not by a subcommittee of the Narmada Control Authority.

Gates opened at the wrong time

Before the Narmada floods on September 16-17 last year, heavy rainfall (more than 100 mm) was recorded at many places in the catchment area of ​​the Narmada river.

According to the weekly report released by the Central Water Commission regarding the water storage capacity of the reservoir, the Full Reservoir Level, or FRL, of Sardar Sarovar for the week ending September 14, 2023, was 134.83 as compared to 138.68 and it was 79% full, whereas the FRL of Indira Sagar Dam was 261.51 meters as compared to 262.13 metres and it was 90% full.

Explaining this disaster, Devi Singh says, “The gate of Bargi was opened on September 15, 2023, after which the water here started rising on September 16. We asked the NCA [Narmada Control Authority] to open the gate of Sardar Sarovar on September 17, but it was opened only after the birthday celebrations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi concluded.”

The Narmada Bachao Andolan also alleges that the six-metre gates of Sardar Sarovar were opened only after Modi’s celebrations, and demands that the water level should be kept at the level of 122 metres to avoid submergence.

Himanshu Thakkar, the convenor of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People and an expert on dam management and rivers, says, “Neither is anybody’s responsibility fixed in this regard nor is there any regulation. Since there had been a lot of rain before the flood, action should have been taken accordingly. If the decision to release water was taken at the right time, the downstream could also have been saved from floods. Narmada was flooded due to the same reason in 2019 and again in 2023. Such a disaster could have been avoided.”

Change dam standards

Thakkar told Mongabay India, “When a dam is built, it is said that it will manage floods, but this theory can be successful in practice only if it is managed keeping this objective in mind.”

Thakkar believes that the dam can be filled completely only when the monsoon season is coming to an end. They say that the end of September is considered the end of monsoon, but over the years it has been observed that there has been a change in the monsoon pattern. It rains till mid-October and sometimes even after that. Therefore, this change will have to be taken into account in the management of dams.

He explains that every dam has a rule curve which decides how much water will be filled in the dam on which date. The rule curve should be reviewed in three to five years and the inflow pattern of the dam should be changed accordingly. They also emphasise that every year, there should be an integrated rule curve of the river basin as silt gets accumulated in the dams. This is especially important given that new dams are being built in the basin. However, at present, the rule curve is not being followed by any dam, and neither is it being operated accordingly.

On the question of determining the backwater level, Thakkar says: “There are very few independent technical experts in our country and their arguments are not accepted even by the courts and most of the academic research institutes here are either directly funded by the government or in some way supported by them. I feel that because of this, nothing could be done regarding the questions raised on the change in backwater level.”

While talking to Mongabay India, Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar raised questions on the appropriateness of dams and said, “After the completion of Sardar Sarovar Dam in 2017, the first flood occurred in 2019. There were already 30 big and 135 medium dams on the Narmada. Six more big dams are being built in Madhya Pradesh. There is no justification for building these dams.”

In this regard, she also gives the example of decommissioning of dams in western countries. It should also be noted that in one study, the Narmada has been included among the most flood-prone rivers of India.

Rehabilitation ground reality

According to the Annual Report 2020-’21 of the Narmada Control Authority, 23,603 families were affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project in Madhya Pradesh, of which 5,540 families have been resettled in Gujarat, while 18,063 families have been resettled in Madhya Pradesh. These are the families of 178 villages of Madhya Pradesh after the revised backwater level. Similarly, the last report available on the website of the Narmada Valley Development Authority in 2016-’17 also claims that 5,535 displaced families have chosen to settle in Gujarat.

However, apart from the reports of Narmada Control Authority and Narmada Valley Development Authority, the ground reality is bitter. Many families who have been chosen to be rehabilitated in Gujarat don’t want to leave Madhya Pradesh under any circumstances. They continue to live in their ancestral homes located on the banks of Narmada amid fears of submergence. They claim that they don’t want to go to Gujarat because the land allotted to them is not fertile.

Sumitra Darbar, a resident of Kukra Rajghat village in Barwani district, told Mongabay India, “We were given five acres of land in Kesrol, Bharuch, Gujarat, but that land is not suitable for farming, so we did not shift.” This village that falls in Birkheda panchayat of Barwani tehsil of Barwani district turned into an island during last year’s floods.

Jaideep Singh Darbar, 32, of the same village, told Mongabay India, “Our family was given land 27-28 years ago in Miyagam Karjan in Baroda district of Gujarat, but that land is not suitable for farming, so what will we do there? Our land here is like gold.”

Recalling his childhood days, he says, “At that time, I was very young and did not understand things well, but I remember that the government used to load people from here and take them to Gujarat for settlement, but because they did not like the land, they kept coming back.”

Jaideep says that his family now has only three acres of land here which does not get submerged, while about seven acres of land is submerged. In the absence of water, they grow animal fodder there.

Rehmat, who was displaced from Chikhalda village in Dhar district and is associated with the Narmada movement, says, “People who were landless got some land there when they were displaced to Gujarat, but those who have fertile land here are better off here.” He says people are still waiting to be rehabilitated.

This article was first published on Mongabay.