Gandhinagar: Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL) has today issued a statement in regard to the ongoing controversy on the recent flood situation in Bharuch. Following is the translation of the Gujarati statement released by SSNNL:

Narmada basin is an example of coordinated management of various reservoirs. Sardar Sarovar is the last terminal dam on Narmada river, and therefore it has to face the tail-end syndrome because whenever there’s release of water from upstream main dams such as Omkareshwar and Indira Sagar, it has to be contained and organized by Sardar Sarovar dam.

Gujarat hadn’t received notable rain in August 2023, and in the first week of September, its share in Narmada basin was just 7.72 MAF which use to be 9 MAF in the years that have a normal monsoon. In the meeting of Narmada Control Authority’s Sardar Sarovar Reservoir Regulation Committee (SSRRC) on 1st August, it was decided as per the reservoir operation table that for the month of September, SSP level should be 136.64 meters. On that day, the actual level at SSP was 133.73 m. However the river brd power house (RBPH) was operating and water was flowing to the sea which was in contradiction to SSRC’s decision.

The priority of Gujarat is to save every drop instead of the generation of power because then, the issue was about saving the standing crops and there was also the need of drinking and irrigation water for the next ten months. Therefore RBPH was shut on 6 September.

The figures of rainfall registered in upsrtream based rain gauge stations of Sardar Sarovar Project(SSP) during 5-14 September show very less to extremely less rainfall. SSP’s catchment area witnessed middle size rainfall on 15 September and very heavy rain on 16-17 September. At that time the upstream main dam ISP (Indra Sagar Project) was completely filled with water and therefore the entire volume of water was released downstream towards Sardar Sarovar dam.

In addition to this, there was a cloud burst between ISP and SSP and a flash flood situation in SSP. On 16 September at 11 pm, SSP had maximum flow of 21.75 lakh cusec. CWS had made no notable forecast. SSP on 16 September at 10 am started releasing 45,000 cusecs water in downstream which rose to 1 lakh cusecs at 12 noon, 5 lakh cusecs at 2 pm, 8 lakh at 5 pm and 18 lakh in early morning of 17 September.

SSP dam has released 18.62 lakh cusecs water against maximum 21.75 lakh inflow and reduced peak flow by upto 4 lakh cusecs by using the available storage capacity and systemic gate operation.

On 13 and 14 September, there was no notable rain and no notable outflow from ISP. There was no forecast by CWC as well. On 13-14-15 September 2023, there was no reason to release water from Sardar Sarovar dam.

Thus Sardar Sarovar dam authorities on 16-18 September, 2023, conducted a systemic procedure in the situation of sudden flood which resulted into possible minimum damage in downstream areas. DeshGujarat