Abstract
Hydropower is often termed “green energy” and proffered as an alternative to polluting coal-generated electricity for burgeoning cities and energy-insecure rural areas. India is the third largest coal producer in the world; it is projected to be the largest coal consumer by 2050. In the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India, over 450 hydroelectric power schemes are proposed or are under development. Hydropower projects ranging from micro hydro (run-of-the-river systems with generating capacity up to 100 kW) to large reservoirs (storage systems up to 2000 MW) such as the Tehri Dam are in various stages of planning, construction or implementation. Run-of-the-river hydropower projects are being developed in Uttarakhand in order to avoid some of the costs to local communities created by large dams. Stakeholders in this rapid hydropower expansion include multiple actors with often diverging sets of interests. The resulting governance challenges are centered on tradeoffs between local electricity and revenue from the sale of hydropower, on the one hand, and the impacts on small-scale irrigation systems, riparian-corridor ecosystem services, and other natural resource-based livelihoods, on the other. We focus on the Bhilangana river basin, where water dependent livelihoods differentiated by gender include farming, fishing, livestock rearing and fodder collection. We examine the contradictions inherent in hydropower governance based on the interests of local residents and other stakeholders including hydropower developers, urban and other regional electricity users, and state-level policymakers. We use a social justice approach applied to hydropower projects to examine some of the negative impacts, especially by location and gender, of these projects on local communities and then identify strategies that can safeguard or enhance livelihoods of women, youth, and men in areas with hydropower projects, while also maintaining critical ecosystem services. By assessing the Bhilangana basin case, we also offer hydropower–livelihoods–irrigation nexus lessons for headwater regions across the Himalayas and globally.
Highlights
Rampant urban and industrial growth and an agricultural sector increasingly dependent on groundwater pumping for irrigation have placed rapidly mounting demands on electrical power generation across South Asia
The main local actors in the Bhilangana basin involved in hydropower projects include: Village Councils (Panchayats), Farmers’ Groups, Irrigation Users’ Groups, Non Governmental
The National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) recommended in a report that disaster impact studies should be part of the environmental impact assessment (EIA). This recommendation stemmed from the common perception that hydropower projects have increased the damage in Uttarakhand caused by floods, especially flash floods and lake bursts from glacier-fed lakes, such as the catastrophic one that caused large loss of life in 2013
Summary
Hydropower development is occurring on rivers where irrigation, livestock rearing, and other natural resource-based activities are already stretched in their. Water is the central thread that interweaves energy (e.g., mechanically powered mills, electricity generation), agriculture (irrigated and rainfed crops, fodder for livestock), fishing, and ecosystems (provisioning of water, regulation of micro-climates)—a prime example of the water–energy–food nexus [1]. The integration of hydropower as the newcomer into local and basin-scale resource-use practices poses very significant governance challenges. Our purpose here is to identify strategies in the Bhilangana River basin in Uttarakhand state, in northern India, that safeguard or enhance the livelihoods of women, youth, and men in areas with hydropower projects, while maintaining critical ecosystem services. By assessing the Bhilangana basin case in Uttarakhand, we offer hydropower–livelihoods–irrigation nexus lessons for headwater regions across the Himalayas and globally
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