3 good ideas, all dammed up (Indian Express 17 September 2010)

While the severe rainfall deficit in the upper Yamuna basin last year has been handsomely compensated this year, it has come with a rider of its own. The normal rainfall in the basin has brought with it flood threats ahead of the Commonwealth Games in the capital and has served as a reminder for the government to harness the rainwater flowing down the Yamuna.
The lack of water storage projects in the upper Yamuna basin has long been a concern. The three planned water storage projects, with a total capacity of over 2 billion cubic meters (bcm) storage upstream, are still struggling to get off the ground in spite of the 90 per cent Central funding promised by the government in 2008. “This rainwater is going down the river for want of water storage structures in upper Yamuna river basin. It is flushing the Yamuna river clean, but the three storage projects envisaged several years ago would have saved this precious resource e for use during the lean season and would have minimised the flood threats haunting the national capital,” A K Bajaj, chairman of the Central Water Commission, said speaking of losses incurred due to the storage projects not taking off.
While the severe rainfall deficit in the upper Yamuna basin last year has been handsomely compensated this year, it has come with a rider of its own. The normal rainfall in the basin has brought with it flood threats ahead of the Commonwealth Games in the capital and has served as a reminder for the government to harness the rainwater flowing down the Yamuna.
The lack of water storage projects in the upper Yamuna basin has long been a concern. The three planned water storage projects, with a total capacity of over 2 billion cubic meters (bcm) storage upstream, are still struggling to get off the ground in spite of the 90 per cent Central funding promised by the government in 2008. “This rainwater is going down the river for want of water storage structures in upper Yamuna river basin. It is flushing the Yamuna river clean, but the three storage projects envisaged several years ago would have saved this precious resource for use during the lean season and would have minimised the flood threats haunting the national capital,” A K Bajaj, chairman of the Central Water Commission, said speaking of losses incurred due to the storage projects not taking off.