Waiting For 'Godaganga'

This is the season of soaring temperatures, dry wells and parched lands when everybody's thoughts turn to water. The release of life-saving Narmada waters to Kutch from the still-incomplete Sardar Sarovar Project and to western Rajasthan from the Indira Gandhi Canal go unsung by carping critics. Both entail inter-basin transfers, 'linking' rivers to carry water from surplus to deficit areas over space and time. The Periyar dam in Kerala's High Ranges diverted this west-flowing river eastwards, through the mountains, to irrigate the dry lands of southern Tamil Nadu over 110 years ago. The famous Deccan tank irrigation system cascaded the spill of upstream 'storages' to tanks at lower levels.

The idea and practice of inter-linking rivers (ILR) is therefore age-old and worldwide. Why then the surprise and wonder if the Cauvery impasse and omens of climate change impel the Supreme Court to urge that the 20-year water balance studies and 30 potential links listed by the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) be dusted and examined for their feasibility, impacts, sustainability, funding, and federal and international dimensions? Per capita availability of water in India has declined from 5,177 to 1,869 cubic metres since 1951 and will be down to 1,140 cubic metres by 2050.

Faulty language and fragmented pronouncements of official policies tend to obscure context. The ILR is not a 'project', but a concept. The supposed price tag of Rs 5,60,000 crore is a misleading aggregation based on questionable premises. Moreover, it is not a single, stand-alone panacea for the country's water problems but the apex of a progression of integrated micro to mega measures in an overall but unarticulated national water strategy.

The inter-linking of rivers suggests a methodology, and is not the overriding objective of Hariyali Hindustan, the Greening of India. This goes far beyond ILR. The other components in the Hariyali package include rainwater and rooftop harvesting, watershed management, afforestation, groundwater recharge, the desilting of ponds, tanks, beels, jheels and other water bodies, wasteland reclamation and the proper maintenance of canals, drainage systems and embankments. This envisages activities at many levels.

It postulates improved water-use efficiency and management, more appropriate use and cropping patterns, agrarian reform etc. Also, a realistic and humane R&R policy through in situ area development rather than an essentially impracticable land-for-land policy. Much of this activity could be undertaken by a core eco-development brigade, supported by millions of seasonally unemployed labour and youth mobilised in conservation corps for national service under Articles 51A (d) and (g) of the Constitution. Panchayati institutions and ngos could use food-for-work and a multitude of well-funded central and state rural development schemes that require to be innovatively integrated. Many of these programmes are already on the ground, with annual budgets running into thousands of crores. The problem is not finance but organisation, management and political will. The goal should be to create farm capital assets that upgrade the productivity of every unit of land and water, generate mass employment and create new wealth.

Hariyali Hindustan is not merely related to irrigated agriculture. Two-thirds of arable India lies in arid, rain-fed areas that support a vast, relatively impoverished population but are ideally suited for growing oilseeds, pulses and nutritious coarse grains. According to the Working Group on Watershed Development, Rainfed Farming and Natural Resource Management for the 10th Plan (2002-07), only 27.5 m ha out of 107 m ha of problematic/degraded and rain-fed lands have been treated over the past 40 years.It recommends that the remaining 79.5 m ha be covered in a Single National (Watershed Management) Initiative by 2022, the Rs 72,750 crore outlay being shared by the Centre, states and local communities.

No state will back ILR if its ongoing irrigation and hydro projects remain incomplete for lack of funds. The National Commission for Integrated Water Resource Development Planning (1999) assessed that a balance of Rs 77,000 crore was required for this purpose. Where is the money? Much of it is unused or ill used within the system. Further, funding is required incrementally even as completed projects commence earning through power and produce sales. So figures like Rs 5,60,000 crore are purely hypothetical. Nor is the NWDA's list of projects sacrosanct. Detailed project reports are yet to be prepared and some proposed alignments are being redrawn to enhance cost-effectiveness. International projects will, of course, require negotiation and partnership with Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh—even Pakistan, to harness the full potential of the Indus system to mutual advantage over and above the subsisting Indus Treaty.

Some smaller, independent links within a single state may be ready to go by 2005. Others will require delicate political and public negotiations. The development of inter-state water markets could possibly work wonders. So could the development of basin authorities and river parliaments/panchayats that comprehend functional rather than administrative boundaries. All going well, an unfolding ILR process may take 30 to 50 years to execute. The ILR-Task Force marks only a first step in a larger, holistic national endeavour to achieve India's 'Four Modernisations' pertaining to land and water, political reforms, gender justice and poverty alleviation.