- Many shortlisted projects located in water stressed areas.
- Water access to a reflection for thermal plant operators.
- Expansion, which is likely to burn additional conflicts between residents and industry.
Chandrapur: April marks the start of the cruelest months for residents of Solapur, a warm and dry district in western India. When temperatures hovers, water accessibility decreases. In the highest summer, the wait for taps can flow to a week or more.
Just a decade ago, water flowed every other day, according to the local government and residents of Solapur, approx. 400 km inland from Mumbai.
In 2017, a 1,320-megawatt coal-fired power plant began run by state-controlled NTPC, operations. It gave the district energy – and competed with residents and businesses on water from a reservoir that serves the area.
Solapur illustrates Catch-22, which is facing India, which has 17% of the planet’s population, but access to only 4% of its water resources. The world’s most populous country plans to spend nearly $ 80 billion on water -hungry coal plants in 2031 to drive growing industries such as data center operations.
The vast majority of these new projects are scheduled for India’s driest areas, according to a Ministry of Power Document reviewed by Reuterswhich is not public and was created for officials to track progress.
Many of the 20 people interviewed with Reuters For this story, which included managers of electricity companies, energy officials and industrial analysts, said the thermal expansion, which probably had a future future conflict between industry and residents over limited water resources.
Seven -seven of the 44 new projects named in the undated Ministry of Power Ministry’s card list of future operations is located in areas that the government classifies that either suffer from water button or stress. NTPC, which says it draws 98.5% of its water from water stressed areas, is involved in nine of them.
Said NTPC in response to Reuters‘Question that it’ continuously strives for the preservation of water with the best of our efforts in Solapur, ‘including the use of methods such as treatment and recycling of water. It did not answer any queries about potential expansion plans.
The Ministry of Power has told lawmakers in parliament, most recently in 2017, that the locations of coal -fired power plants are determined by factors, including access to land and water, and that state governments are responsible for allocating water to them.
Access to land is the dominant consideration, two federal officials in the groundwater board and two water scientists told Reuters.
India’s complex and Arkane Earth legislation has delayed many commercial and infrastructure projects for years, so that power operators under pressure to meet spraying demand areas where they are likely to have some resistance, said Rudrodip Majumdar, an energy and environmental professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bengaluru.
“They look for areas with easy accessibility of soil – minimum resistance for maximum soil – though water is only available far away,” he said.
The Federal Ministry of Power as well as energy and water authorities in Maharashtra State, where Solapur is located, did not respond to queries.
Delhi tried to reduce his dependence on coal before turning the track after the covid pandemic. It has invested heavily in renewable energy sources such as sun and hydro, but thirsty thermal power will still be dominant in the coming decades.
India’s former supreme energy bureaucrat Ram Vinay Shahi said clear access to power was strategically important to the country if power consumption per year. Inhabitants are far lower than its regional rival China.
“The only energy resource we have in the country is coal,” he said. “Between water and coal are given preference to coal.”
‘Nothing’ in Solapur?
Solapur -resident Rajani Thoke is planning his life around water in high summer. On days of supply, “I do not focus on anything but the storage of water, washing clothes and such work,” the mother of two said strictly policies her family’s water consumption.
Sushilkumar Shinde, the federal Minister of Power, who approved the Solapur plant in 2008, when the area had already been classified “Water button”, told Reuters He helped NTPC acquire the land by negotiating payments to the locals.
The member of the Opposition Congress Party, which won elections to preserve Solapurs parliamentary seat one year after the plant’s approval, defended the operation due to NTPC’s significant investment. The $ 1.34 billion plant generated thousands of jobs during its construction and now gives part -time employment to approx. 2,500 rooms.
“I made sure the farmers got good money for the acquired country, NTPC,” he said, adding that the local authorities were to blame for water shortages.
Solapur municipal official Sachin Ombase acknowledged that water distribution infrastructure had not kept pace with population growth, but said the authorities were trying to solve the problem.
Shinde said “There was nothing” in Solapur in 2008 and that residents who received land payments had no reason to oppose the plant.
Researcher Shradpad Dharmadhikary, who founded environmental lawyer group Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, said local politicians often supported Splashy infrastructure projects to increase their popularity.
Any “problems come much later,” he said.
Even before the Solapur system began to operate, there were signs of the problems that came. The first of its two units should begin to generate power in mid -2016, but it was delayed by more than 12 months due to years of severe water shortages, according to a 2020 -legislative archiving.
The absence of nearby water resources meant that the station ended up drawing on water from a reservoir approx. 120 km away. Such distances can increase costs sharply and the risk of water theft, said Dharmadhikary and two plant sources.
From May 2023, the station is among India’s least water -efficient, according to the latest available federal items. It also has among the lowest capacity utilization degree for coal -fired plants according to data from the government’s think tank Niti Aayog.
NTPC said its data indicates that the Solapur system has an efficiency relationship in accordance with the country’s norms.
Indian stations typically consume twice as much water as their global colleagues, according to the Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment Think tank.
Solapur Plant -Employees told journalists in March that capacity utilization will improve with rising demand, indicating that water consumption could increase in the future.
An upcoming study of water consumption in Solapur led by state groundwater authorities and reviewed by Reuters showed that watering demand in the district exceeds the delivery of one -third.
Dharmes Waghmore owns agricultural land a few miles from the plant and said that developing it would provide more financial security than his current relaxed work.
But he said that borrowing money to develop the land by drilling a drilling well is too risky: “What if there is no water?”
Kulade epy Jangam, a top local official, said authorities were struggling to attract companies to Solapur.
The lack of “water neutralizes all other migratory factors,” he said.
Thirst for water
Since 2014, India has lost 60.33 billion units of coal power generation across the country – equivalent to 19 days of coal -power supply in June 2025 levels – because water shortages force plants to suspend the generation, according to federal data.
Among the facilities that have struggled with shortages are the 2,920MW Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station, one of India’s largest.
The plant is located about 500 km northeast of Solapur, but also in a water voltage area, the plant closes several of its units for months at a time, where the monsoon delivers less rain than usual, according to Niti Aayog data.
Despite the challenges, the plant is considering adding 800 MW new capacity, according to the list of the Ministry of Power, seen by Reuters And half a dozen sources in Mahagenco that operate the station.
The document indicates that the plant has not identified a water source for the expansion, although it has already collected its coal.
State -owned Mahagenco did not respond to Reuters‘Question.
The thirst of the plant after water has previously led to tension with residents of the nearby Chandrapur City. The locals protested the station during a drought in 2017, prompting officials such as local legislator Sudhir Mungantiwar to order it to divert water to home.
Mungantiwar, however, says he supports the expansion of the plant, which he hopes will lead to it withdrawing in water-integral older devices.
But the station has already delayed a plan to shut down two polluting and water-Guzzling power units with a capacity of 420 MW for about seven years with reference to instructions from the federal government, the company said.
The Indian government asked electricity companies not to retreat to old thermal plants until the end of the decade due to an increase in demand for the pandemic, Reuters have reported.
Chandrapur -resident Anjali, who goes with one name, said she has been withdrawn to visit a pressure installed by the station near one of its gates for drinking water.
“We are poor, we do with what we can get,” she said.
