Political Diary

New Delhi, 26 July 2014

Politics Of Water

HOW WILL INDIA QUENCH THIRST?

By Poonam I Kaushish

“Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink”, bemoaned a farmer in the cow belt. “What’s the big deal about water, we are submerged under it anyway,” said two marooned orphans in flood-ravaged Assam, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Reactions which reflect weather vagaries coupled with the callousness of Mera Bharat Mahan. Whereby quenching India’s growing thirst for water is not only grabbing eyeballs but become a politically volatile issue today thanks to our netagan muddying the waters.

Undeniably, the search for water and its management has become the most harrowing task for 21st century India. Imagine, over a billion have no access to it. Already, four train loads of water are the lifeline for 128 villages and towns in Rajasthan. These trains fetch 6 million litres from Jodhpur for 4 lakh people in Pali and 10 towns get water once in three days and 31 once in two days. In Andhra Pradesh, only 34 out of 116 municipalities get regular water for an hour twice a week.

In Maharashtra’s Aurangabad three crore people depend on tankers for water supply! Cherapunji which has the highest rainfall in the world has to depend on tankers for its daily water supply! In Gujarat’s Saurashtra and Kutch regions there is no water at the depth of 1200 ft. Worse, the boom in population has aggravated the dilemma as the country accounts for only four per cent of the water in the world but its population is 17.4% of the world.

Shockingly, 11 river basins, including Ganga, will be water deficit by 2025, threatening 900 million lives with the challenge getting graver by 2050 as demand is set to rise to 1,180 million cubic metres, 1.65 times the current levels even as fresh water resources dwindle.

Raising a moot point: Where will India get its water in the coming years? Specially against the backdrop of multiple inter-State disputes over water-sharing pending in the Supreme Court which tries to broker peace between warring States. More so, after the bifurcation of some big States.

Alas, instead of finding durable and a sustainable solution to the multiplying problems, the Centre has taken recourse to short-cuts and quick-fix remedies compounded the mess. Bringing it 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.

Nothing underscores this than the perennial war of words between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the 122-years-old (1892) riparian politics on sharing of Cauvery waters being playing out. The latest update is that the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal has expressed its inability to entertain Tamil Nadu's plea seeking clarification on the final award passed by it 2007 regarding allocation of quantum of water to the States and asked it to approach the Supreme Court for appropriate directions.

Moreover, not a few Parties and leaders rake up water issues for their political survival, ignoring the consequence of their action. At other times, State interests override national interests. Many a time a State refuses to honour a tribunal award or it rescinds its agreement.

Last week Kerala’s Congress Government refused to allow the proposed inter-linking of its rivers Pampa-Achenkovil with Tamil Nadu’s Vaipar river. Ostensibly, as the project would not only result in drying up the rivers but also cause large-scale ecological destruction by inundating 2004 hectares of deep forest. Notwithstanding, the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) asserting excess water in the State’s rivers.

Telengana’s ruling TRS too has asked the Centre to relook into the River Krishna water-sharing award as the new State was being unfairly treated by Andhra, Maharashtra and Karnataka through which the river flows.

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. Modi or no Modi.

Obversely, it is no secret that half-a-dozen intra-State river linking schemes, including Sujalam Sufalam, Sabarmati-Saraswati and Bhadar-Mahi links have started yielding positive results and mitigated the potable as well as irrigation water woes in several parched areas and drought-prone in Modi’s north and central Gujarat and increased greenery and improved environment in the State.

What is the way out? The Centre has to treat water as a national asset and go in for durable long term solutions. This needs national planning geared for local solutions. Towards that end various commissions, tribunals and committees have been set up since Independence but sans any result.

In fact, one of the major steps in this direction was conceived in the late fifties by the then Irrigation and Power Minister KL Rao who conceived the two schemes of connecting all the Indian rivers. One, the “Garland canal Scheme” connecting all Himalayan rivers and two, the “Peninsular canal scheme” linking 17 southern rivers.  

Between the two, they promised to deliver additional irrigation for 25 million hectares from surfaced water, ten million hectares from increased use of groundwater, generation of 34 million KW of power while reducing floods and drought. But till date the report continues to gather dust.

In 1980, Indira Gandhi set up another committee to evaluate the situation for the next 20years. Two years down the line the National Water Development Agency was constituted to find a solution keeping in mind the national perspective.

Again in 2003, the Vajpayee led NDA Government set-up a Task Force to determine the cost-benefit of inter-linking of rivers covering nine aspects which included financial, social, environmental and political aspects. In its nine-month tenure two action plans were submitted. But ten years down the line the reports gather dust.

Today, realizing the gravity of the situation Prime Minister Modi has also unveiled his dream project Ganga Rejuvenation and River Development as rivers are being over-exploited, increasingly polluted and used as dumping grounds for industrial waste and garbage. It now remains to be seen whether his proposals are implemented and, if so, how fast?

Perhaps he could take a leaf from Ambedkar book who envisioned a way to foster a permanent solution between States. He felt India should follow a path which 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

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. States need to maximize a fair distribution of water and minimize its use as a weapon of conflict. Mere words will not quench India’s growing thirst! ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)