Mumbai: International environmental organisation Greenpeace on Thursday said there had been "wrong prioritising" in allocation of water to thermal power plants in Maharashtra during the current drought.
An analysis of the water consumption by coal-fired power plants during the severe drought that has affected more than 12 districts and 11,800 villages this year was released by Greenpeace here.
The analysis showed cases of "wrong prioritising of water resources" for thermal power plants, said Jai Krishna, Campaigner, Greenpeace. He demanded immediate review of water diversions and allocations in the drought-affected areas.
Four state-owned power plants -- Bhusawal in Jalgaon, Parli in Beed, Paras in Akola and one in Nasi -- with total capacity of 3,680 MW were located in the drought-affected areas, he said.
Parli plant, located in the drought-affected Beed district, has been shut down since February 17 this year.
Though the government announced that water stock in all reservoirs in the water-scarce regions will be reserved for drinking water needs, an additional 5,000 million litres of water was provided to Parli plant by the Water Resources Department in December, violating its own decisions, he said.
"Even during a drought, the state seems to deprioritise the drinking water needs of farmers and villagers in the drought-affected regions. Additional water seems to have been given to thermal power plants even during December last year despite being fully aware of the upcoming crisis in summer," he said.
"Instead of assessing whether the power plants have enough water, the state should concentrate on whether people have sufficient drinking water during this drought," he added.
The Bhusawal power plant in Jalgaon and Paras power plant in Akola were still operational, consuming large quantities of water, he said, despite the fact that the tehsils where plants are located were suffering from a severe drought.
The total water consumed by the power plants till March this year was about 17,000 million litres and they were expected to consume another 15,000 million litres till June, which was the amount of water required for more than six lakh people for an entire year, he said.
Greenpeace has demanded that a cumulative assessment of the water availability and use in the state be conducted on a war footing to ensure that water allocations to thermal power plants are not made in violation of the existing water policy and that drinking and agriculture requirements are prioritised.
Previous allocations should be suspended and an immediate moratorium should be imposed on any new allocations till these assessments are completed, it has said.
PTI
