Strategic Analysis of Indias National RiverLinking Project NRLP

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Strategic Analysis of Indias National
River-Linking Project NRLP
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Contours of NRLP

• Building 30 links, 3000 small and large
  reservoirs, 12500 km of canals to link 36
  Himalayan and Peninsular rivers to effect 178 km3
  of inter-basin water transport.
• 35 MHa of new irrigated area 35 GW of
  hydro-capacity navigation and flood control
  benefits.
• Gestation Period Proposed2016 Most Likely2050
• Cost Rs 560,000 cr. at 2002 prices (US 120
  Billion) 1 - 1.5 of Indias GDP for the next 3
  decades.

• Largest infrastructure project anywhere,
  ever. Five times the size of the
  Three Gorges Project.

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Why do we need a Research Project

• Hardened positions with little analysis
• Critics complaint that government has not done
  good analysis of alternatives
• Government says that considering the magnitude of
  the crisis, NRLP is the only option
• Key Missing Issues
• What is the magnitude of crisis itself?
• How was interlinking chosen as the best available
  option
• What is the scope of the alternatives?
• How do we ensure that there will be
  implementation efficiency - time and cost
  overruns - and OM would be done better than
  before?
• What would it takes to implement alternative
  solutions on national scale?

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Project Goal
and Purpose

• Promote a balanced, analytical and informed
  national discourse on India's Water Future 2050,
  and approaches to shaping it, including through
  the River-Linking project

• Support South Asias quest for food livelihoods
  and water security
• Capitalize on the uncommon opportunity created by
  the NRLP

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Specific Objectives

• Build scenarios of what India will be likeits
  economy, society, demographics, habitat, and
  environment in 2025 and 2050, and with what
  implications for its water future?
• Analyze whether NRLP is an adequate, cost
  effective and sustainable responsein
  socio-ecological as well as political
  terms--towards meeting the water challenge.
• Sew together a clutch of institutional and policy
  interventions into a National Water Sector
  Perspective Plan (NWSPP) as a fallback strategy.
• Identify best practices to implement the NRLP as
  well as the NWSPP

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Phase-wise Activities and Methods

• The 3 years ahead

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Phase I
Indian Agriculture and Irrigation
Food Security and Trade Liberalization
Regional Patterns in Economic Growth
Demographic Projections
Environmental Water Demand
Indias Macro Hydrology
Domestic and Industrial Water Demand
Revisiting Water Availability and Demand
A Sharp, Well-Rounded Prognosis of Indias Water
Future - 2025/2050 of the Water Challenge
Facing the Nation
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Phase II
Envtal and Ecological Valuations
Economic Analysis
Financial Feasibility
Technical Feasibility
Institutions and Political Economy
Implementation Effectiveness
Social Cost-Benefit Analyses
1 How adequate, complete and cost-effective a
response is the River-Linking Project to Indias
Water Challenge 2050? 2 How to maximize net
social benefit of NRLP?
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Phase III
Water Demand Management
Virtual Water Transfers
Ganges Water Machine
Decentralized Water Harvesting
Water Institutions and Policies
Alternative Energy Sources and Scenarios
Inter-Sectoral Competition
Water Use Efficiency and Productivity
1 If the NRLP fails to take off, how else can
India effectively meet its Water Challenge
2050? 2 How best to put into operation the
NWSPP?
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Key Strengths

• Impart substance and quality to the national
  discourse on NRLP
• Help India think through its long term water
  challenge and evolve a fall-back strategy to
  meet it
• Rally a broad alliance of Indian researchers and
  institutions to participate in a distributed
  research and dissemination program
• Allocate over 70 of the resources requested to
  NARES institutions and
• Leverage substantial knowledge equity and funds
  IWMI contributes as matching resources.

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Thank You