The PIONEER
River Linking Lessons From
China
Tuesday, 21 April 2015
5
While India’s project is yet to take
off, China has already finished two out of the three channels of its own
river-linking project. Its third channel will divert the waters of the
Brahmaputra, and this will have a direct impact on India
The ambitious
National River-Linking Project is back in the news, with the Government of
India setting up a task force, chaired by eminent engineer BN Navalawala, to
review the 30 links suggested by the National Water Development Agency and
suggest alternatives, if some links are not viable. The task force will also
recommend time schedules for completion of feasibility studies and detailed
project reports, the implementation schedules for the links and a funding
mechanism.
Set up in 1980, the
NWDA had suggested that rivers be linked to transfer water from surplus basins
to the deficit ones, as this was the only option to mitigate the
sufferings of people affected by frequent floods and droughts in the country.
However, even after three decades, not a single link has been
implemented. This shows the lackadaisical approach of the authorities.
The reasons are not
far to seek. There are vested interests who have been working against the
project since its inception. Remember, every flood and drought brings sizable
amounts of relief money from the state, which these vested interest use
to sustain themselves. Naturally, they do not want their source of income to
dry up, with the implementation of the project.
Against this
scenario of the project languishing due to inherent conflicts of interests as
well as inter-State disputes, the report about similar water diversion projects
taken up and executed across the border, in China, should be an eye-opener for
India. To tide over water shortage in the arid northern parts, China had taken
up, about a decade back, one of the most ambitious engineering projects in its
history: The gigantic South-North Water Diversion Project.
The project has
three links. The first link, or the eastern route, transfers 8.9 billion cubic
metres from the Yangtse river to the north Shangdong Province; the second link,
or the central route, carries 9.5 billion cubic metres water from the Yellow
river to meet the demands of Beijing and surrounding areas; and the third link,
or the western route, will divert the waters of the Brahmaputra (known as the
Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet) to northern parts.
The total cost of
the entire project, which will transfer about 45 billion cubic metres annually
from the humid south to the arid north, is estimated at $81 billion. Working
discreetly for the last 10 to 11 years, China completed its eastern link in
2013, transferring water to the industry heavy north-east.
Since December
2014, water has also started flowing through the central link. According
project officials, once the western link is completed, the massive water
transfer will address the chronic water shortages in China’s northern
cities.
The implementation
of the western link is of great concern to India since it involves the
diversion of the Brahmaputra by damming the river at the Great Bend in Tibet
and transferring the waters therefrom by negotiating the Himalayas through
tunnels. Though international experts doubt China’s capability to implement the
project, which requires heavy tunneling works in the Himalayas, Beijing has
already gone ahead and announced its plans to build a strategic 540km long,
high-speed, rail link between Tibet and Nepal, passing through a tunnel under
Mount Everest. The message is clear — the Chinese have the expertise required
for the project.
Presently, China is
not bound by any treaty restricting its water usage as an upper riparian
state. Except for a Joint Declaration with India, made in 2006, for exchange of
hydrological data, it has no water sharing agreement with either this country
or with any other co-basin nations. China is not even a signatory to the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International
Watercourses. Hence, India has to be concerned about the proposed diversion of
the Brahmaputra waters by China.
To protect its
water rights, India must urgently implement projects for utilising these waters.
Unfortunately, a major project, proposed on the Brahmaputra about 15 years
back, has still not left the drawing boards. Under these circumstances, if
China goes ahead with the proposed diversion works, then India may even have to
re-look the Himalayas Rivers component of the National River-Linking Project.
India has spent
several years analysing the project, till it paralysed the Government into
inaction. Now that the Centre has accorded top priority to the project and set
up the high-powered task force for speedy implementation, it is to be hoped
that this will instill the needed vigour and enthusiasm to make the project a
reality in the near future.
(The writer is a former Member
Secretary, Indian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, Central Water
Commission)
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