TTT

[ROSHAN LAL THAKUR]

[5/16, 13:18] AJAY KUMAR UFO: run-of-the-river (RoR) scheme. RoR schemes entail water being captured at one spot, diverted into penstock pipes and finally released through turbines at the generation plant, at a lower elevation. Water therefore runs into tunnels inside the mountains and the rate and intensity of blasting has reached a point of severe social and environmental concern. Groundwater sources get depleted and often dry out completely, leaving entire villages without any drop. Moreover, road construction and land slides, seismic risk, diversion of forests, exploitation of migrant labour and poor working conditions, along with the disruption of local communities are other key ingredients of the Himalayan hydro boom. Nonetheless, the state government is blindly continuing with tapping the remaining potential quickly, through large, medium size and small hydropower projects. Be it drying up of large stretches of river and natural water sources, damages to houses due to intensive blasting, loss of crop, massive deforestation- all these stand ignored but the state government is undeterred and has gone forward to declare hydropower generation as future mainstay for its revenue generation.

Moreover, the opening up of the sector to private and mixed (public-private) actors have further pushed for damming and diverting Himalayan rivers, as described by Dharmadhikary in his 2008 report “Mountains of Concrete” and “Global Finance” of 2002 by International Rivers, Urgewald and SANDRP.
Moreover, the opening up of the sector to private and mixed (public-private) actors have further pushed for damming and diverting Himalayan rivers, as described by Dharmadhikary in his 2008 report “Mountains of Concrete” and “Global Finance” of 2002 by International Rivers, Urgewald and SANDRP.