Political Diary

New Delhi, 8 December 2012

Netas Muddy Waters

DROWNING IN RIVER POLITICS

By Poonam I Kaushish

A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman of the next generation. This homily encapsulates the on-going political trapeze in Delhi. If satiating the craving for power was the Congress’s elixir on FDI last week, quenching India’s growing thirst for water is not only grabbing eyeballs but become a politically volatile issue today. Trust our netagan to sully the flow of water into political sewage to massage their vote-banks! Raising a moot point: Where will India get its water in the coming years?

Importantly, the water challenge is grave, over a billion have no access to it and get graver by 2050 as demand would go up to 1,180 million cubic metres, 1.65 times the current levels. A situation made worse by fast dwindling fresh water resources topped by multiple water disputes in the Supreme Court as it tries to keep peace between warring States.

Nothing underscores this than the on-going war of words between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the 120-years-old (1892) riparian politics on sharing of Cauvery waters being playing out in the Apex Court. In an interim relief to Tamil Nadu, the Court directed Karnataka to release 10,000 cusecs of water daily to its neighbour and asked the Cauvery Monitoring Committee to decide the amount of water required by the States.

Predictably, this rekindled the entire water discourse again. Whereby, both States played the emotional card. While Karnataka said its farmers would suffer, ten thousands acres of land would go waste with release of even one TMC water to Tamil Nadu and Bangalore and Mysore would experience water shortage by next February.  

Countered Chennai, “Our 15 lakh acres of land would go waste. Karnataka has wrongly appropriated its share of Cauvery river water.” Citing figure to buttress its claim: Tamil Nadu houses 6% of the country's population but only has 3% of its water resources, the per capita availability is 800 cubic metres, a third of the national average and gets annual rainfall of 792 million metres compared to the national average of 1,250 million metres.

Sadly, their quandary went beyond the quest for water and has become another poll plank issue. Since Karnataka is heading for Assembly elections next year, Chief Minister Shettar refused to release water as it would create factions within and outside the BJP thereby allowing his ex-colleague Yeddyurappa to score brownie points. 

For reasons best known to it, the Centre too is not pushing Bengaluru to release Cauvery water for Tamil Nadu. Notwithstanding, rising temperatures in Chennai with rampant protests by both ruling AIADMK and DMK.

Clearly, sharing of river waters has become the most taxing and exasperating task for 21^st century India. Cauvery is only the tip of the iceberg. 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. 

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. Bringing things to such a pass that the concerned States have started taking independent action in brazen violation of the Constitution.

Already, the Centre is embroiled in sorting out water-sharing disputes between Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka over the Krishna waters, between Maharashtra and Karnataka over Godavari, between Goa and Karnataka over the Mandel-Mandovi Basin and between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat over Narmada. And many more. 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.

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.

What next. The time has come to treat water as a national asset which needs national planning, effective and responsible water management geared for local solutions. Else, the country will face a severe water crisis within the next two decades and have neither the cash to build new infrastructure nor the water needed by its growing economy and rising population.

States need to maximize a fair distribution of water and minimize its use as a weapon of conflict. As it stands, the per capita water availability has reduced alarmingly. If in 1951 it was 5,177 cubic metre, 2209 cubic metre in 1991, 1820 cubic metre in 2001 today it is 1,582 cubic metres and rapidly dropping. Also, the annual extraction of groundwater is the highest world-wide wherein the unsustainable over-extraction has lowered the water table to dangerous levels.

In fact, Ambedkar envisioned a way to foster a permanent solution between States. He felt India should follow a path that insisted on ‘water sharing equity’ through a Constitutional mechanism by allocating autonomous governance rights to the Centre to ensure water sharing equity was met even in distressed years

One of the major steps in this direction was conceived in the late fifties by the then Irrigation and Power Minister, K.L. Rao who appointed the M.N. Dastoor Committee which made two proposals. One, connecting all the Himalayan Rivers under the “Garland Canal Scheme” and two, the “Peninsular Canal Scheme” connecting the 17 southern rivers.

The project promised to deliver additional irrigation for 25 million hectares from surfaced water, 10 million hectares from increased use of groundwater, generation of 35 million KW of power while reducing floods and drought. Former PM Vajpayee took it up but alas, it has remained on paper for over 10 years

Simultaneously, the concerned States must show magnanimity and adopt a give-and-take approach instead of rushing to courts or tribunals. Rivers need to be seen as a composite whole that includes forests, environment, watersheds, seepage, evaporation, crop patterns, irrigation etc.

Tragically, in their squabbles our polity fails to realize that our rivers are being over-exploited and getting increasingly polluted. Thanks to being used as dumping grounds for industrial waste and garbage. The Ganga and Yamuna are two cases in point.

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. All eyes are now on the course the Cauvery water dispute will take. How long will we allow our netas to continue muddying the waters and completely drain India’s future? ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)