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Rivers run through it
After Supreme Court’s nudge, Centre should
expedite river-linking
The
Indian River Linking (IRL) Project is back in the news after the Supreme Court
asked the Centre and state governments to participate in planning its
implementation. The court has also directed the Union government to set up a
committee, comprising representatives from various government departments and
ministries as well as experts and social activists, to chart out a plan.
For
decades, several proposals for the project were discussed and studied by a
number of high-powered committees. They all recommended early implementation to
mitigate the havoc created by recurring floods and droughts. However, not even
a single link has been constructed so far. The project is limping from
pre-feasibility to feasibility studies and from preliminary to detailed
investigations, with the stage of implementation nowhere in sight.
The
reasons for this state of affairs are not far to seek. While states are busy
quarrelling with each other on their water rights, the Centre makes the plea
that water is a state subject under the Constitution and hence it would not be
able to suo motu intervene in such disputes. Though many high-powered bodies
had advised the Centre that Entry 56, List 1 of the Seventh Schedule of the
Constitution gives ample powers to the Union government to regulate interstate
rivers which contribute more than 80 per cent to the annual water resources of
the country, the Centre has not taken any initiative to use these provisions to
promote projects to generate benefits.
The
main objection from some water-rich states is that they do not have any surplus
water to spare. They insist that it will be possible for them to utilise all
their waters and do not agree to the basic philosophy of inter-basin water
transfer as a method for correcting the natural imbalance of inequitable
distribution of the resource.
Water
is also not high enough in the political agenda to demand instant attention and
hence, even though billions of cubic metres of water flow into the sea
unutilised every year, no concrete action is taken to mitigate the devastation
and suffering caused to the people by frequent floods and droughts. The powers
that be appear to be happy taking ad hoc decisions to survive a situation,
ignoring long-term needs. The apex court’s intervention should compel them to
do the needful.
Some
have objected to the IRL project by raising the bogey of environmental impacts
while transferring water from wet to dry areas, conveniently ignoring the
benefits accrued by such projects within the country and abroad. Prophets of
doom have condemned the project, stating that the IRL canal systems would prove
to be an open sewer crisscrossing the country. Similar forecasts had been made
earlier on the Golden Quadrilateral road project — that the national highways
would turn into conveyor belts of noxious emissions!
A
few others meanwhile stand up for minor dams, saying small is beautiful. The
concept is fine, but not fully reliable for harnessing water resources, when
monsoons play with the fortunes of farmers and shortage of drinking water
becomes a reality.
The
proposals for the interlinking of rivers represent a great challenge and
opportunity as they form part of a better tomorrow to free millions from
miseries resulting from both harmful abundance and acute scarcity of water. The
country cannot afford to go slow on these well-studied proposals, considering
water’s role as an engine for development. Now that the apex court has sought a
committee to be set up for facilitating the implementation of the project, some
progress could be expected.
One
of the main issues for the committee will be to make water-endowed states agree
to release surplus water to deficit ones. If a provision can be introduced in
the proposals to compensate donor states for the economic cost of surplus water
given to the project, they may agree to a transfer as they can use the
compensation to meet their needs. The compensation can be decided on the basis
of an agreed criterion, either in cash or in sharing the power that is
generated, agricultural produce, etc. As both donor and donee states will
benefit from this provision, it will be a win-win situation. Further, it will
ensure that both states use water only to meet their requirements and not waste
the resource.
The
committee will also be confronted by issues of environmental impact and rehabilitation
of people affected by the project. Since the apex court will be monitoring
these, transparency and justice can be expected in the implementation.
Long-distance
transfer of water is not an end in itself; it is a means to a greater end —
that people are no longer at the mercy of floods and droughts. So far, we have
indulged in too much analysis and done too little. It is time to act so that
the project becomes a reality in the near future.
The writer is former member secretary, Indian
National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage
express@expressindia.com
express@expressindia.com
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