Niti Aayog has proposed the biggest ever hydropower project in the country in Arunachal Pradesh. The project, proposed on Siang river, Brahmaputra's main tributary, is estimated to be a 300-metre-high dam with power generation capacity of 10,000 megawatts. The project is going to replace the earlier two relatively smaller planned projects, Siang Upper Stage-I and Stage-II. As per Niti Aayog, the new proposal will not only exceed the combined capacity of the two projects but it will also reduce the project cost by 25 percent. Fresh protest against the mega-dam, however, have already started in the state and even the hydropower companies have expressed scepticism and doubts about the proposal.
According to a recent study published in the medical journal The Lancet, 2.51 million people have died prematurely in the country in 2015 due to diseases linked to air, water and other forms of pollution. Worldwide, the deaths linked to pollution are estimated to be nine million. Also, the study has claimed that 92 percent of the pollution-related deaths were reported in the low- and middle-income countries and in rapidly industrialising nations such as India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Madagascar and Kenya. Moreover, the study has concluded that pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and death in the world today.
The Jhelum river in Jammu and Kashmir is suffering under the lowest ever flow due to no rainfall in October so far and limited rainfall in September. The low flows have affected more than half a million people in three districts of Kashmir and over 50 small and large water supply schemes in the region. Moreover, reports of dying fish being stranded on the banks of the Jhelum have also come up in the last few days, sparking panic among people. However, the reason for fish deaths is still not clear but as per authorities, it could be due to the unusually dry weather.
Bengaluru has received 1655.7 mm of rainfall this year, breaking the rainfall record of the past 115 years. The heavy rains have caused huge losses to the city--the death toll reached 19, dozens of trees got uprooted and the infrastructure was destroyed due to water inundation. The heavy rains have exposed poor urban planning and management of the city. The worst-hit areas are the ones that lie either on a lake bed, in the midst of a river valley, at the wrong side of Bengaluru's topography or have undergone significant encroachment and misuse of the network of stormwater drains.
The construction works have been completed for the largest floating solar plant in the country that has come up in Banasura Sagar reservoir in Wayanad, Kerala. The plant which is 500-kilowatt peak floats on 6,000 square metres of the water surface of the reservoir with its photovoltaic panels installed on 18 floating platforms. The outlay for the project is Rs 9.25 crore and its installation works are complete. The plant will soon be ready for inauguration.
This is a roundup of important news from October 18 - 23, 2017. Also, read the policy matters this week.