The Chenab choke: India readies dams with desilting, flushing to store more water

India is taking urgent action to prepare the reservoirs of two run-of-the-river hydropower plants on the Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir—Baglihar and Salal—for the storage and control of water flow to Pakistan during the winter months. This includes limited flushing and desilting of the reservoirs.

In the coming days, other dams will undergo the same procedure to improve storage within India. The action is part of the country’s comprehensive plan to control and halt the flow of the western rivers—the Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab—to the neighbouring nation, following the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) after last month’s terror incident in Pahalgam.

While desilting involves dredging to remove accumulated sand, flushing is a process that uses strong water flow to clear sediments from the reservoir.

“Since the Treaty is on pause and there is no obligation to follow its provisions, we may do flushing on any project without any obligation. It will ensure longer effective life of such projects,” former Central Water Commission chairman Kushvinder Vohra told TOI.

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According to him, the flushing process may be completed within one to two days for typical projects with smaller live poundages, such as Baglihar and Kishanganga.

The roadmap’s short-term actions include desilting and flushing reservoirs, while medium-term measures focus on accelerating hydropower projects under development, such as Pakal Dul (1,000 MW), Ratle (850 MW), Kiru (624 MW), and Kwar (540 MW).

Vohra noted that another short-term measure would be to reduce the flow of nine cubic metres of water from Kishanganga—as required by the previous award—and use it to generate more electricity for India.

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As part of long-term plans, four additional power plants are proposed, which will allow India to utilise more water from the western rivers through associated reservoirs.

These projects will not only increase India’s hydropower capacity in Jammu & Kashmir from around 4,000 MW to over 10,000 MW but will also enhance the volume of water that can be stored for use in the Union Territory and its neighbouring states.

The roadmap also includes restarting the previously stalled Tulbul project on the Jhelum, improvements to Wuller Lake and the Jhelum to bolster flood control, lift projects to enable faster water usage, and optimised use of the Ranbir and Pratap canals to ensure more water for the Jammu region.

“Many other things can also be done which may unfold at an appropriate time,” Vohra added.