Abstract
The socio-economic growth of nation is dependent on exploitation of available energy resources to its fullest and in particular hydropower, as a clean renewable source of energy, which is an essential need of any developing country. Severe power shortage is one of the greatest obstacles to India's development. Over 40 percent of the country's people, most living in the rural areas do not have access to electricity and one-third of Indian businesses cite expensive and unreliable power as one of their main business constraints. India's energy shortfall of 10 percent (rising to 13.5 percent at peak demand) also works to keep the poor entrenched in poverty. Power shortages and disruptions prevent farmers from improving their agricultural incomes, deprive children of opportunities to study, and adversely affect the health of families in India's tropical climate. Poor electricity supply thus stifles economic growth by increasing the costs of doing business in India, reducing productivity, and hampering the development of industry and commerce which are the major creators of employment in the country. Presently, the generating installed capacity is only about 27% of hydropower potential i.e. about 40 GW against the potential of about 150 GW, which is quite discouraging and pathetic. Hydropower plants as the banks of water & energy security, help achieve climate change mitigation goals by generating clean, green, renewable, sustainable & affordable energy, with low carbon emissions and therefore, environmentally friendly, to a larger extent. As climate change adaptation measures become more urgent, dams and reservoirs can increase the capacity to deal with extreme weather events, with storages, thus balancing water flows during floods & droughts. It implies, they aid in unwinding the wrath of climate change. On its flipside, nothing is absolute and everything comes at a price, and so is development through hydropower. In spite of glaring major benefits, the fact remains that Dams significantly impact on freshwater ecosystems and conflicting demands of water requirement for agriculture. Environmental and social impacts, which are subjected to widespread criticism are inevitable but can be surely mitigated, to a reasonable extent, which is elaborately presented in the paper. Problems & solutions go hand in hand. The pace of Hydropower development in India has slowed down especially in last few decades. Slow development is primarily attributed to long gestation period, lack of funds, complex geology of the projects etc. Therefore, to foster the generation of hydropower, at relatively faster pace, for making up for the time already lost, it necessitates use of innovative practices in planning, design & construction aspects, which is beaded in a typical model “7M MODEL”, devised based on the lessons learnt during the planning, execution and operation of successful Mega hydro-electric projects, in India & abroad. This is an assured success mantra, as a blue print for accelerated harnessing of hydropower potential, paving a way to water & energy security.