The ‘Workshop on Environmental Flows’ was organized by Aaranyak and River Research Center (Kerala) and supported by International Rivers, on 6th of May 2012. Around fifty participants representing different grassroots organizations and communities from eight states of North East India along with resource persons from various parts of India participated in the one day workshop held at Indian Institute of Bank Management (IIBM), Khanapara, Guwahati, Assam.
168 hydropower schemes with a cumulative installed capacity of 63, 328 MW, have been proposed in North East India. This massive dam building exercise will have a direct impact on the whole estuarine ecosystem of the region severely affecting the river water flows which is crucial to sustaining freshwater habitat for plants and animals. Also it will have huge impact on river-dependent communities who depend on rivers to support their livelihoods.
Therefore, to enable the community to challenge destructive projects such as dams, a kind of sensitization programme on environmental flows or ‘E-flows’, a concept developed to achieve a flow regime, or pattern for rivers, that provides for human uses and to maintain the essential processes required to support a healthy river ecosystems was held in Guwahati on May 6, 2012.
Introduction to ‘Workshop on Environmental Flows’
The programme began with a welcome speech and brief introduction about the workshop by Partha J Das, of Aaranyak. Explaining on the background of the workshop, Das said that concept of E-flows is gaining significance all over India, both as a decision making tool and as a tool to access health of a riverine ecosystem.
“We realize the importance of having a threadbare discussion about what E-flows actually means. How can we estimate its merits and demerits as a tool for decision making as well an assessment tool for an ecosystem researcher?”
Das in his speech said that the North East region urgently needed this kind of concept. Therefore, the purpose of the workshop on E-flows was to bring in people from all sectors of society especially from the civil society of North East India to share views and contribute to the discussions, he said.
Inauguration
The introductory session was followed by an inaugural ceremony. In the inaugural ceremony, Professor Dulal C Goswami, former head of the Department of Environmental Science, Guwahati University, observed that the E-flows, is a concept that prescribes river flows needed to maintain healthy rivers, which is vital for the country and for our knowledge and understanding, and is not taught in any institution today.
“On E-flows there is so much of scarcity on knowledge and knowledgeable people. And mostly it is outside the academic discourse. It is only being taken up by knowledge-based NGOs and whole lot of new knowledge is being created by them,” he said.
He pointed out that the same type of E-flows assessment methodology may not be applicable to the same river at different locations and different segments. The validity of the particular model we are using, will be questionable because ecological and sociological aspects of the river may differ.
Introductory session by Dr. Dulal C Goswami
Why E-flows?
“Often decisions are taken by government that certain percentage of water should be released in a river that is dammed. On what basis are these decisions taken? Philosophy is that there should be some water left in the river. But how much water? This is where we started talking about E-flows,” said Samir Mehta of International Rivers Network explaining to the participants on why the concept of E-flows needs to be worked out as a new decision making tool.
Elucidating further, Latha Anantha of River Research Centre (RRC), Kerala said, “E-flows is in addition to the larger picture of interlinking of rivers (ILR). In 2003, the ILR concept came in India and with that questions arose as to how much water should flow in a river. What are environment flows all about? How can we improve the flow by managing the existing reservoir in that river? How can the operation of the reservoir be managed so that river flows can be managed in the downstream?”
Bringing out the big challenge of managing the flow of water in river Brahmaputra, she said a big problem of managing the river during peak hour time and off peak will come up, if all proposed dams in the river are constructed. “During the day time, the river will be dead, and during the evening time, lot of water will be flowing in the river. How can we work out an action strategy to improve the river flow? How can reservoir operations management improve flow in the downstream, for irrigation, drinking needs, and for downstream ecology?”
She presented the recorded case of the Indus river where there has been drastic flow reduction due to regulation in flow. “Inspite of 2000 sq km of Indus delta being protected area, there has been drastic flow reduction from 1,85,000 MCM to 12,300 MCM per annum between 1892 to 1990,” said Anatha.
“According to the studies, flow reduction was mostly caused by dams and diversion of water especially for irrigation. The effects of flow reduction led to decline in drains, mangroves and fish productivity and increase in salinity. So if this is the case with the largest river delta of India, what is in store for the Brahmaputra?”
Other implications due to flow regulation as brought out by Anantha in her presentation on ‘Primer on E-flows’ were ecological, where numbers of certain species of fish declined due to the change in the morphology and ecology of the dammed river. The damming also affects hydraulic connectivity where lateral and horizontal connectivity of a river is disrupted. Further it also causes economic loss and decline in water quality.
Why should a river flow? How many dams can a river accommodate?
“For the government, water is wasted to sea, so every drop has to be used for humans. It implies that world starts with us and ends with us, that’s how we look at it,” said Anantha.
Stressing on the need to move away from the techno-economic centric and engineering view point of rivers, she said river is an ecosystem in itself, and it is the most important ecosystem which connects all other ecosystems. When we cannot recreate rain water, how we can recreate a river, she asked.
Bringing out a primer on E-flows, which she co-authored with Parineeta Dandekar of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), she said, “E-flows is a technical domain and common people are left out. The objective of the primer on e-flows is to demystify the entire process. It is to ensure that the communities, that are going to be affected, participate in the decision making process.”
“As a decision making tool, E-flows is a concept that will help decide on the carrying capacity of the river. Can we go on building dams in a river? Any river has a carrying capacity beyond which the river becomes almost dead, ecologically dead and hydrologically dead. E-flows have to be used as tool for either stalling the dam or restoring the river,” said Anantha.
Implementation challenges
“India has not reached implementation stage but we have to start talking about this,” said Anantha. “Though river systems are similar, but hydrologically and ecologically rivers are different. And catchment variability and mountains are also different. For example, Himalayas are young mountains and Western Ghats are old mountains. Siltation and weathering process is different. Therefore we cannot have standard implementation process for the entire country. Also in western countries, direct dependent on rivers is very low. Direct dependence on rivers in India is very high.”
Other challenges she brought out regarding implementation of E-flows as assessment tool were on lack of data. “We don’t have pre-hydrological ecological data. How do we know how the river was, before being dammed? There is lack of proper hydrological and ecological data base. In Brahmaputra and its tributaries, which are yet to be dammed, we can generate our own hydrological ecological data for countering many of the destructive dams that are coming up. But for Western Ghats rivers, it’s too late.”
Also different political priorities of different states had impact on decision making. Some states advocate for more and more dams; lower the E-flows, as the best scenario. Lack of proper institutional framework to implement E-flows to manage, implement and monitor were other challenges that were brought out during the presentation. Ultimately, it was brought out that E-flows can be a legitimate basis for challenging the number of dams in a river.
Assessing e-flows
Referring to his presentation, Suresh Babu from WWF gave an overview of the Building Block methodology (BBM) - a method for assessing e-flows, how different it is from other approaches available for e-flows assessment and the process of verification of such an assessment that was done using Building Block methodology.
E-flows was discussed and defined as a social and scientific process where there is not a single correct e-flows regime for rivers and it depends on what people want from the river. Explaining further, he said that e-flows are not just about establishing a minimum flows for rivers but it assumes that there is some ‘spare’ water in rivers that can be used without unacceptably impacting on the ecosystem and the societal services that the river provides. It is an adaptive process in which flows may be successively modified.
Explaining Building Block methodology as a holistic method of assessing e-flows, Suresh Babu stressed that it is one of the most comprehensive methodologies with a bottom-up approach, very detailed and can be tailored to suit local conditions. It is rigorous, well-documented and the most frequently used holistic methodology.
Adding on, he said that the methodology is flexible to accommodate other local aspects such as religious and spiritual requirements and functions well in both data-rich and data-poor situations. It also links to external stakeholders and public participation processes and could be applied to regulated and non-regulated river regimes. Elucidating further, Suresh Babu underlined the different steps and stages involved in the Building Block methodology.
He also emphasized that the e-flows process should be embedded in a framework of inclusive stakeholder understanding and participation, and preferably within a broader context of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).
Ravindra Nath, expressing his apprehension on e-flows advocated for free flow of rivers. Expressing his opinion on e-flows, he said e-flows is a method that accommodates dam builders and justifies the existence of dams by maintaining a stipulated e-flow.
In his view, the ‘flow’ was not the question; the question was that of loss of land and livelihood because of land submergence, land erosion, river-bed shifting, river drying and such other causes. Explaining with the example of Ranganadi, he said that it was not possible to bring e-flows, as the river has vanished. It is either sand-casted or dried as a result of which communities dependent on it, have been shattered. They have lost food and livelihood. He strongly advocated for studies and research on free flow of rivers.
The presence of participants from diverse backgrounds from across the region elicited an array of opinions on e-flows, their suitability and meaning in the context of the Northeast region.
Listen to the presentations: