Indian Express
A river runs through it
:Aug 18, 2014
By: M.S Menon
The Indian Meteorological Department warned of poor
rains this year, which was ominous for the country as most of its agriculture
is dependent on the monsoon rains. As the spectre of drought loomed, the
question that comes to mind is: why have we failed to implement a national
water grid plan, even after years of detailed investigation and study for the
proposed Indian river linking (IRL) project? The proposal had envisaged
diverting the surplus waters of the Brahmaputra to the water-deficient Cauvery
and beyond, through 30 links that would bring additional irrigation to 35
million hectares, generate power and supply drinking water to drought-prone
areas.
The proposal for the mega IRL project is gathering
dust because it got mired in the complexities of hydropolitics among the
states, kept alive by corrupt politicians, as well as activists and academics
masquerading as the guardians of the environment. Water-rich states were not
willing to share their surplus with water-deficit states, arguing that they did
not have any water to spare, given their future plans. In this fight between
the states, the Union government remained a helpless spectator, pleading that
water was a state subject under the Constitution. Even though Entry 56 of List
1 of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution empowers the Centre to regulate
interstate rivers, it did not use these powers. The Centre’s inaction meant
that project work did not progress as scheduled, since more than 80 per cent of
the country’s annual utilisable water resources is carried by interstate
rivers.
The annual occurrence of floods and droughts
proved to be a boon for corrupt officials and politicians as they could reap
illegal benefits from the relief doled out. So they remained opposed to a
long-term plan like the IRL project. At the same time, a motley group of activists
and academics interested in remaining in the limelight were busy spreading
misinformation about the project, raising the bogey of environmental
degradation.
Misrepresenting ground realities, they offered textbook solutions as alternatives to the river linking project.
They lacked the honesty to appreciate the evidence from existing river linking projects that contradicted their ideological fantasies. According to these groups, any river should be left in its pristine condition to protect its ecology and biodiversity all the way up to the sea. According to them, major dams like Bhakra had brought only disaster to the country — the eco-friendly inundation canals and village tanks of the past could meet all the food requirements then and they would be adequate even now.
Misrepresenting ground realities, they offered textbook solutions as alternatives to the river linking project.
They lacked the honesty to appreciate the evidence from existing river linking projects that contradicted their ideological fantasies. According to these groups, any river should be left in its pristine condition to protect its ecology and biodiversity all the way up to the sea. According to them, major dams like Bhakra had brought only disaster to the country — the eco-friendly inundation canals and village tanks of the past could meet all the food requirements then and they would be adequate even now.
The project has also been criticised by the
prophets of doom, who point out that its canal system would become an open
sewer spreading across the length and breath of the country. Ever critical of
developmental efforts, these cynics had earlier condemned the Golden
Quadrilateral project for national highways as a network of conveyor belts for
noxious emissions.
These all-knowing experts appear to be ignorant of
the facts recorded in the district gazetteers, about the famines that would
occur before dams like Bhakra were constructed. They are also afflicted by
bouts of amnesia about the massive water transfers, implemented through water
trains, to drought affected areas in the recent past, when the traditional
tanks had dried up and the “small is beautiful” ideology had failed.
Infrastructure transferring water from surplus to
deficit areas was constructed in the past and is still serving without causing
environmental disaster — for example, the Western Yamuna Canal and the
Kurnool-Kadapa Canal. If our forefathers had not taken timely action to harness
the water resources by constructing dams and canal systems, and left the rivers
in their pristine condition, by now, we would have been begging for food to
meet the needs of our growing millions.
Since water has been made a political issue, none
of the water-rich states will accept that it has a surplus. A change in this
attitude can be brought about if the states can be convinced of the benefits of
being able to spare water. If these states could be compensated for the water
they can spare as surplus, they would certainly agree to the project, as they
could use the compensation to meet the needs of their future plans. The quantum
of compensation could be decided on the basis of agreed criteria. As both the
donor and the recipient state would benefit from this provision, it would
be a win-win situation for all, fostering a water-saving culture among the
states.
We have lost decades in implementing the IRL
project. Too much analysis has paralysed us into inaction. Future generations
will not pardon us for this inaction.
The writer is former member secretary, Indian
National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, ministry of water resources
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