Dr Bharat Jhunjhunwala
The immediate cause of the disaster in Uttarakhand is an ordinary atmospheric happening of cloudburst. However, hydropower projects being made below the Kedarnath Mountains has converted this ordinary happening into a disaster. The Phata-Byung and Singoli-Bhatwari on the Mandakini are each making an about 20 km long tunnel in the fragile mountains. Large amounts of explosives have been used for this purpose. The blasting has loosened the soil of the mountains and weakened the roots of the trees. Previously rainwater used to seep down into the hill aquifers taking support from the roots of the trees. Presently, the same rainwater has uprooted the trees and carried them along with the soil into the river. These projects had dumped large amounts of muck into the river to reduce their construction costs. This too has been carried by the river. Density of the river water became more. This heavy water and the flowing logs from the uprooted trees have hit the roads, bridges and houses and broken them leading to a huge disaster.
Manmohan Singh has had a major role in pushing these projects and bringing this disaster upon the hapless people of the country. He has formed special task forces in the PMO to fast track hydropower projects. He wants electricity to be generated at the lowest possible costs irrespective of the consequences on the economy and the people. He does not want to calculate the true cost of electricity after accounting for various environmental costs including such as that of the present disaster. The PMO has seen to it that the price of electricity is reckoned only on the basis of direct costs incurred by the producer such as depreciation, interest, labour charges and payments for coal. The environmental costs of generation are not taken into account. Truly speaking, the monetary value of the loss due to the present disaster should be added to the cost of electricity generated by the hydropower projects. These projects lead to lower economic growth by creating such disasters. People who have died will no longer contribute to the economy as they could have. The benefit from cheap electricity is nullified by the loss from disasters and environmental degradation.
Similar damage to the economy has been made by the downstream Srinagar project being made on the Alaknanda. Large amounts of muck were dumped by the GVK Group Company making this project on the riverbed. This muck was carried by the river and deposited in the houses of downstream Srinagar town. About 100 houses had to be abandoned and people rehabilitated. The National Highway 58 has been closed for the last two weeks at the time of writing because a layer of 8 feet thick slush has been deposited on it.
Professor Stephen Meyers of Massachusetts Institute of Technology had made a study of the impact of environmental regulation on economic growth. He ranked the 52 states of United States according to the depth of environmental regulation. Then he compared this with their growth rates. He found that states having stronger environmental regulation also had higher economic growth rates.
There is no gainsaying that stronger environmental regulation leads to higher costs of electricity, transport and other charges. This leads to an increase in direct costs of electricity and to a reduction in growth rates. But this is more than compensated by the savings in health costs, water supply and other environmental savings. Thus, although the consumer is put to loss due to increase in cost of electricity; this does not translate into a loss to the overall economy. The loss to the consumer is compensated by the gains from environmental protection.
Increase in price due to profiteering by generation and distribution companies stands on an altogether different footing. Arvind Kejriwal has rightly alleged that Discoms are obtaining undue increases in price by submitting cooked accounts. Such increase in price hits at growth. The consumer has to pay higher price which leads to lower production but there is no countervailing positive impact from environmental protection. For example, if the price of electricity generated from Singoli-Bhatwari project is increased then Lanco and Larsen and Toubro, which are making the projects, will make huge profits. But disasters will continue to take place and people who die will not contribute to the economy. The increase in price of electricity becomes beneficial only if the money is used for environmental protection.
Imposition of environmental tax is necessary from the standpoint of national security as well. Our consumption of electricity is increasing rapidly, in part, because it is cheap. Our domestic sources of coal are sufficient only for about 150 years. We do not have uranium. Hydropower hits at our river-worshipping culture. Thus we are becoming increasingly dependent on imported coal and uranium. This is putting our national security at peril. Our economy will come to its knees in a mere 15 days in the event West Asian countries stop supply of oil. We must reduce consumption of electricity and find ways of enhancing quality of life with less consumption of energy.
The cycle of making hydropower and inviting disasters is entirely harmful for the people and the economy. Not so for the Ministers and Government Servants though. They are doubly benefitted. They earn huge bribes in signing the Implementation Agreements with the hydropower companies. Knowledgeable sources tell me that the going rate is Rs one crore per megawatt. This is a huge amount considering the hydropower potential of 40k megawatt in Uttarakhand. Then disaster strikes and they get huge amounts for relief and reconstruction. The going rate of bribes here is 20 to 50 percent. Thus, Ministers are promoting this policy of hydropower and disaster.
We must take two steps towards proper management of the electricity sector. First, we must establish a priority for the use of electricity. The National Water Policy sets priority in use of water as follows: Drinking water, Irrigation, Hydropower, Industry and Navigation. There is a need to establish similar priority in the use of electricity. Possible priorities may be as follows: Essential services, services sector such a software, agriculture, industries and domestic consumption. Within domestic consumption sub-priorities may be established such as ceiling fans, desert coolers and air-conditioners. Electricity may be supplied for air-conditioners only after every citizen has been provided with electricity for running a fan.
Two, we must take up research on generation of electricity from thorium as a top national priority. Knowledgeable sources tell me that the Government is so enamoured with the Nuclear Treaty with the United States that it has put research on thorium-based generation on the backburner. I do not know for sure, but it is possible that foreign nuclear plant supplier’s lobby is behind this. We have large sources of thorium but scarce uranium. Thorium-based generation will wholly liberate us from import dependence.
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