NGT orders Singrauli power plants to supply drinking water to residents

NGT orders Singrauli power plants to supply drinking water to residents

The Tribunal has warned the power plants of closure if they do not provide clean drinking water to residents whose main water sources, the Rihand reservoir and nearby rivers, have been polluted by the fly ash from the plants. The region is known for its coal reserves and is the energy capital of the country, generating about 10% of India's coal-based power.

The state Chief Minister Harish Rawat has directed the Irrigation, Forest and Water Resources Departments to jointly work out a policy which will focus on reviving the rivers in the state and devising water conservation schemes in villages located along their banks. Even as the chief minister said that the groundwater table needs to be maintained by preventing construction on surface recharge areas, there was no mention of dams in the official press release.

The Northeast, described as a powerhouse of the country by Narendra Modi, is using newly designed watermills to light up its own villages. These micro-hydel projects, also known as hydrogers, have been developed by the Nagaland Empowerment of People through Energy Development, a government body. As of now, there are 22 hydrogers in Nagaland and one each in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Meghalaya in villages that are not connected to the power grid.

Lakhwar and Vyasi, the two hydropower dams in Dehradun, were cleared by the Environment Ministry in February this year violating the Supreme Court's ban on any new dam projects imposed in August 2013 in the wake of the flash floods. The Ministry expert panel that studied the role of dams in the disaster, also said that hydropower projects were responsible for the large-scale floods and landslides in Uttarakhand.