An expert committee set up by the department of environment and forest under the Union government has estimated the expenditure required to remove silt from the Maithon and Panchet reservoirs of the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) at over Rs 3,500 crore.
The deposition of silt in the reservoirs is taking place at such a fast rate that the two dams will be unable to contain a major flood after a decade.
The committee has estimated that the siltation rate is six times the designated rate at Panchet and nine times that at Maithon. If the deposition of silt goes on unabated, Panchet will lose more than half of its live water storage capacity and Maithon over two thirds in 10 years.
Such a situation will defeat the purpose of constructing these two large dams. With the two main reservoirs unable to arrest the inflow of flood waters, the threat of floods will again loom large over the lower segments of the Damodar valley. The committee has estimated that even at the conservative silt removal rate of Rs 100 per cubic metre, Damodar Valley Corporation will require Rs 3,500 crore to clean the two reservoirs.
The committee has identified two more associated areas for controlling the accumulation of silt. A huge amount of top soil is being washed into the river with the surface run-off. The soil flows along the river and finally gets deposited in the reservoirs.
According to the committee, scientific land and soil conservation programmes need to be taken up over an estimated 4.5 lakh hectare. It says Damodar Valley Corporation must reclaim the damaged area first and then try to arrest the soil erosion, whose rate has assumed alarming proportions. This programme is estimated to cost Rs 45 crore.The committee has also suggested dredging of the river beds and protection of channel banks. The cost of this programme is estimated at Rs 12.5 crore.
Thus the total cost of the silt removal programme is estimated by the committee at Rs 3,557.5 crore.The silt has affected not only the reservoirs but also part of the river length downstream. The silt-affected lower river courses stretch over 100 km below the Asansol-Ranigunj industrial areas. If too much silt accumulates in this part of the river, it will affect not only the water supply to the 200-odd units in the industrial area, but also the supply meant for irrigation and human consumption, the committee report has warned.
