Political Diary

New Delhi, 10 October 2009

Inter-Linking Of Rivers

Rs 5,60,000 CRORES DOWN THE DRAIN

By Poonam I Kaushish

“What’s the big deal about water, we are submerged under it anyway,” said a marooned orphan in flood-ravaged Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. “Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink”, bemoaned a farmer in Maharashtra. Reactions which reflect the tragedy and brutality of present day India.

Trust the Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh’ to muddy the waters with his out-of-the-blue bombshell that “the inter-linking of India’s rivers will be a human-ecological-economic disaster. It is easy to do inter-linking on paper, it has limited basin value, but large-scale inter-linking would be a disaster,” he added. Not to speak of the international ramifications with Nepal and Bangladesh having expressed fears over the project. Bangladesh has even gone to the extent of lodging a complaint against India at the UN.

Coming as it does on the heels of Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi’s warning against “playing with nature, on such a massive scale,” it is crystal clear that the UPA Government has decided to abandon the ambitious river inter-linking project planned by the Vajpayee-led NDA Government in 2002.

On the facetious plea that given the projects multifarious aspects the problem might persist even after 25 years of high expenditure. True, given the high costs it might not be easy to implement the project, but, how did the Minister reach the conclusion that such projects would prove disastrous? Was any new feasibility report done which ran contrary to the earlier committees findings? Is there a dichotomy in perception between the 1952 MMDastur and 2003 Suresh Prabhu committees?

Besides, isn’t it a fact that the half-a-dozen intra-state river linking schemes, including Sujalam Sufalam, Sabarmati-Saraswati and Bhadar-Mahi links have started yielding positive results, mitigated the potable as well as irrigation water woes in several parched areas and drought-prone of north and central Gujarat and increased greenery and improved environment in the State.

Clearly, Ramesh statement has generated a lot of heat and controversy, not only within the UPA but also the Opposition. The Congress’s  Andhra Chief Minister Rosaiah, sang a different tune and asserted that linking of rivers within the State could be useful. He envisaged linking of Godavari and Krishna to save Godavari water from being let out into the sea. Its Southern ally DMK too reminded the Party that it was Indira Gandhi who set up the National Water Development Agency in 1982 to study the possibility of water transfers from surplus basins to deficit areas.

Importantly, the search for water and its management has become the most harrowing and frustrating task for 21st century India. Imagine four train loads of water are the lifeline for 128 villages and towns in Rajasthan. In Andhra, only 34 out of 116 municipalities get regular water for an hour twice a week.

In Aurangabad, Maharashtra, three crore people depend on tankers for water supply! In Gujarat’s Saurashtra and Kutch regions there is no water at the depth of 1200 ft. Cherapunji which records the highest rainfall in the world has to depend on tankers for its daily water supply! The problem has been aggravated with the boom in population. While the country accounts for only four per cent of the water in the world, its population is 17 per cent that of the world.

Worse, according to forecasts by the Ministry of Water Resources and presentations by the Agriculture Ministry, 11 river basins, including the Ganges, will be water deficit by 2025, threatening 900 million lives. The symptoms are already visible. The Government’s solution? Look skywards to ward off the crisis. Ignoring the reality that due to global warming even the glaciers are melting rapidly.

Tragically, today this nature-made dilemma goes beyond a quest for water and has become a major politically volatile issue. Inter-state disputes over water-sharing have grown over the years. More so after the bifurcation of some of the bigger States, leading to inter-state political and legal battles wherein no state wants to release water to another state.

Worse, instead of finding a durable and sustainable solution to the problem, the Centre has taken recourse to short-cuts and quick-fix remedies which have compounded the mess. It is embroiled in sorting out water-sharing disputes between Andhra and Karnataka over the Krishna waters, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over Cauvery, Maharashtra and Karnataka over Godhavri, Goa and Karnataka over the Mandel-Mandovi Basin, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat over Narbada and Punjab and Haryana over Sutlej etc. Despite the Inter-State Waters Dispute Act 1956 having set up five tribunals to go into the matter.  

Look at the absurdity.  Water is managed by as many six Union Ministries----Water Resources, Rural Development, Agriculture, Urban Development, Food and Environment. Predictably, there is no effective coordination between these Ministries. The Agriculture and Water Resources Ministries work in opposite direction. Various rural development programmes are independent of others. Each Minister and his babus guard their fiefdom with zealousness.

To mitigate the problem the NDA Government set-up the river inter-linking Task Force headed by Suresh Prabhu at a cost of Rs 5,60,000 crore. The report recommended division of the project into two – the Peninsular and Himalayan component. The Peninsular component – involving the southern rivers envisaged developing a ‘Southern Water Grid’ with 16 linkages. The Himalayan component envisaged building storage reservoirs on the Ganga and the Brahmaputra and their main tributaries both in India and Nepal in order to conserve the flow of waters during the monsoons for irrigation and generation of hydro-power, besides checking floods.

One of the major steps in this direction was conceived in the late 50’s by the then Irrigation and Power Minister, K.L. Rao. He appointed a committee headed by M.N. Dastoor. This Committee too made two proposals. One, connecting all the Himalayan rivers under the “Garland Canal Scheme” and the “Peninsular Canal Scheme”, connecting the 17 southern rivers. The project promised to deliver additional irrigation for 25 million hectares from surfaced water, ten million hectares from increased use of groundwater, generation of 35 million KW of power while reducing floods and drought. But it is gathering dust as also recommendations by several other committees.

According to Prabhu, “The Centre has to go in for durable long- term solutions. There are no short cuts. Water has to be treated as a national asset. It needs national planning, effective and responsible water management geared for local solutions. States need to maximize a fair distribution of water and minimize its use as a weapon of conflict.”

Scandalously, post Jairam’s outburst all the hard work seems to be down the drain. But it is no water of our rulers back. As the water crisis deepens, the Government, as usual, goes through the ritual of reeling out figures to cover its failure. Asserted the Environment Minister, “we are spending over Rs 10,000 crore on cleaning the Ganga” and another over Rs 9000 crore on accelerated rural water schemes.” Yet wells are dry and women continue to trek long distances for water.

The question is not one of money. The basic attitude of our rulers is all wrong. Are they conscious of the problem? Why is something as basic as water prioritized only at a time of crisis? Why is so little done to develop a long-term response? As matters stand, there is a severe resource crunch even for the ongoing projects. Shockingly, 169 projects pertaining to the Fifty Five Year Plan continue to be in limbo due to lack of funds.

In the ultimate analysis, our leaders need to pull up their socks and put an end to their reckless drift on a subject involving basic human requirement. Offering pies in the sky and indulging   in zabaani jama khurch is no substitute for much-needed pragmatic competence. Let us keep our fingers crossed that the waters are not muddied further. Mere words will not quench India’s growing thirst! ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)