MoEF nods to worsen water crisis
Indiscriminate environmental clearances to projects in cement, coal mining, iron and steel and thermal power plant sectors are going to worsen the water crisis in the country.
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) cautions that even though an additional 3.8 lakh hectares have been allocated to these sectors in the Twelfth Five Year Plan, no cumulative study has been done to ensure water availability in areas where the land has been diverted.
The CSE has calculated that these sectors will require an additional water allocation of 8.3 billion cubic metres of water per year from which thermal power plants alone will guzzle 84 per cent of this allocation.
Iron and steel sectors are expected to consume 13 per cent while the remaining three per cent will be consumed by the other sectors.
But the catch is that while the water resources departments in the states accept that these allocations need to be made, they emphasise that “they are not willing to take responsibility if the water is not available”.
CSE cites the example of how in the last five years, 24 environmental clearances have been granted to thermal power projects on the Mahanadi river which is the lifeline of Chhattisgarh and Orissa. The total water consumed by these projects is 1.55 million cubic metres per day.
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