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The
Indian Rivers Inter-link is a proposed large-scale civil engineering project
that aims to link Indian rivers by a network of reservoirs and canals and so
reduce persistent floods in some parts and water shortages in other parts of
India.
The
Inter-linking of Rivers in India proposal has a long history. In 1858 Arthur
Cotton proposed the plan to interlink major Indian rivers in order to hasten
import and export of goods from its colony in South Asia, as well as to address
water shortages and droughts Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. In the 1970s, Dr. K.L.
Rao, a dams designer and former irrigation minister proposed “National Water
Grid”. In Feb 2012, Supreme Court, gave its go-ahead to the interlinking of
rivers and asked the government to ensure that the project is implemented
expeditiously. Even today on Inter-linking of Rivers political and technical
consensus are in proposal state. By pattiseema project (interlinking of
Godavari and Krishna rivers) this context came in to lime light.
What is
exactly interlinking of rivers?
The
Inter-link project has been split into three parts: a northern Himalayan rivers
inter-link component, a southern Peninsular component and, an intrastate rivers
linking component. The project is being managed by India's National Water
Development Agency (NWDA), under its Ministry of Water Resources. NWDA has
studied and prepared reports on 14 inter-link projects for Himalayan component,
16 inter-link projects for Peninsular component and 37 intrastate river linking
projects.
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All
the rivers in India are perennial rivers. The character of Indian River ecology
is in some rivers like Ganga, Brahmaputra, Godavari have flood water flow and
some rivers like sabarmathi, luni etc., has low water flow. At certain times
the water flow of Godavari is more than the ganga water flow is more than that
of ganga river. Even with in the river system the flow was not even. In godavri
river water flow is low in upper kaleshwaram region, flow increases after
pranahita and indravati rivers join Godavari and it became more intense when
Sabarmati river connects at kunavaram. According to an estimate 4000 TMC of
flood water drain in to oceans / seas every year. With one TMC of water 1000
acres of dry land, 6000 irrigated land and 15000 acre by drip can brought under irrigation.
No
similarity and equality in water flow between rivers and within the rivers.
Even though there are inequalities in river waters only the Prague is storage
of water where it is present and used where there is no water.
At
present there are more than 5000 dams on river which produce 42000 MWatt hydal
power. By interlinking of rivers 3000 more dams can be constructed connecting
via canal. Linking of waters bodies is not new; it is a part of Indian culture.
Not an alien idea to India.
India
is exposed to different types of climatic conditions. Sabarmati has 15% of
precipitation whereas Brahmaputra has 200 days of rain in a year. Monsoons are
became un predictable and became erratic. Extremely unreliable rainfall
condition is seen in India. Unfortunately two thirds of agriculture in India is
rain fed agriculture, 1/6 area is drought prone, 1/8 area is flood prone.
Interlinking of rivers is a sort of permanent solution for recurring problem of
drought and flood in India.
At present population of India is 130
crores, by 2050 population will reach 180 crores. Food grains demand increases
by 2 to 3 times in 2050. Due to economic development qualitative food
consumption increase’s that is why population though increased by 50 crores
food grains demand increases by 2 – 3 times. On the other side alienation of
land increases and use of land pattern alters due to development. Agriculture
land is shrinking year after year due increasing conversion of agriculture land
to non-agriculture utilization. Agriculture is becoming unviable due to yield.
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Solutions
for the problems
Inequalities
in irrigation lead to inequalities in social and regional. The solution to
reduce inequalities in irrigation is providing water facilities by interlinking
of rivers and basin. Water transport is cheaper, fuel efficient and causes less
pollution. Interlinking of rivers help in seemless water transport. By the
constructing of canals massive employment was created to local people and
engineers.
Additional
35000 M Watt hydal power can be generated through interlinking of rivers. India
face a peculiar twin problem, that is in a area drought and in another area
faces flood. Interlinking of rivers provides permanent solution for drought and
floods.
National
Council for Applied Economics and Research (NCAER) produced a strategic paper
on interlinking of rivers. It stated tha in 1960’s Pakistan interlinked 10
rivers and china and America has also done interlinking of rivers then why
India can’t.
According
to the report of central water commission river basins are increasingly drying
up resulting in falling per capita water availability across many parts of
India pointing to a grim future ahead. There is wide spread dis parity in basin
wise water availability due to uneven rainfall and varying population density
in the country. The availability is as high as 14057 cu m per year per capita
in Brahmaputra / Barak basin and as low as 307 cu m per year per person in
Sabarmati basin. Per capita water availability of nation is declining, in 2001
it is 1,816 cu m, in 2011 it is 1,544 cu m and in 2050 it is estimated as 1,140
cu m. By interlinking of rivers disparity per capita availability of water in
river basin can be reduced.
Ground
water, soil moisture, greenery increases due to interlinking of rivers,
fisheries increases which provide additional income to rural people. Irrigated
land area will be increased which leads to improve in food grain production.
Supreme Court says that projects have to be taken up as national importance.
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Disadvantages
or Impacts
Massive
intervention to the nature, diversion of rivers is carried that is west flowing
rivers to east flowing rivers, results cannot be estimated. There are
apprehension that earthquake may occur due to Tehri dam, it will be huge
tragedy if there is unprecedented disaster. Serious and deritorious ompact on
monsoons.
The
very premise of interlinking is there are certain rivers are surplus and where
as some rivers are deficit. Surplus and deficit standard is questionable, why
it is questionable. Due to unpredictable climate change certain river which are
deficit may change in to surplus.
Demand
pattern may change, Mahanadi river in odisha is surplus due to less demand if
the demand in future increase’s what happens. Today Godavari in Telangana has
surplus water so Andhra Pradesh has done interlinking of Godavari and Krishna,
if Telangana constructs dams and stores the surplus water then there is no use
of interlinking of rivers. Surplus and deficit are not static they change over
period.
Bachawat
tribunal gave freedom to utilse surplus water to united Andhra Pradesh, but
Brijesh kumar tribunal distributed the surplus water among the Maharashtra,
Karnataka, and united AP. Interstate share may change which lead to interstate
disputes. Supreme Court in this matter said that the states should come above
the narrow outlook interest for national importance (odisha objected
polavaram). Lower riparian staes are facing troubles due indiscriminate use of
water by upper riparian states so, this will throw up more disputes. Not only
interstate disputes international disputes will arise. Some projects create
international impact and the rights of nations such as Bangladesh must be
respected and negotiated.
Large
scale displacement tooks place, through land acquisition act 2013
rehabilitation is provided on the basis of
livelihood and good compensation will be given so, land acquisition is
not a problem. The major problem is if displacement occur in one state and the
beneficiaries are in another state.
Further,
the inter-link would create a path for aquatic ecosystems to migrate from one
river to another, which in turn may affect the livelihoods of people who rely
on fishery as their income. Lakra et al., in their 2011 study, claim large
dams, interbasin transfers and water withdrawal from rivers is likely to have
negative as well as positive impacts on freshwater aquatic ecosystem. As
regards to the impact on fish and aquatic biodiversity, there could be positive
as well as negative impacts.
Conclusion
Nobody
is opposing the interlinking of rivers on a rock barren standing. The question
is only the advisable of massive projects. The solution is to initiate smaller
projects first like pattiseema. Links that are dipute free, cheaper. Cost
effective have to be competed first. Based on the experience of the smaller
line, interlinking projects have to be scaled up.
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