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National Perspective Plan for water resources development by transferring water from watersurplus basins to water deficit basins/regions in 1980 was formulated by the ministry of water resources. National Water Development Authority after carrying out detailed studies identified 30 links for preparation of feasibility reports. These links can be divided into two componentsthe Himalayan (14 links) and the Peninsular (16). These links are aimed at mitigating the effects of floods and droughts, and as well as augmenting income in rural areas in general, and in agriculture in particular. The ILR programme is focused on reducing irrigation uncertainties and mitigating the adverse impact of floods and droughts. Once these canals are
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built, they will also be used as waterways for navigation, reducing stress on road/rail transport. The successful implementation of the programme is, therefore, of utmost importance for the development of the country and it is necessary that a supportive climate for the programme be created. When the project was announced a decade ago in 2002, one section of public opinion supported it, and another opposed its implementation. It is without taking any note of the conflicting public opinion that the present binding directions have been issued by the court. Apart from increased irrigation, link canals have the potential to generate hydroelectricity, which during summer is low. Once the canals and reservoirs are in place

and enough water is stored in reservoirs, it can be used to generate hydro electricity. The ILR programme with the MSTG link is envisaged to generate 28,994.5 MW of power and require 4,193 MW of power for the project, resulting in net power generation of 24,801.5 MW. The JTF link is envisaged to generate 24,822.5 MW of power and require 5252 MW of power for the project resulting in net power generation of 19,570.5 MW. The idea of interbasin transfers is based on the assumption that certain surplus (flood-prone) and deficit (drought-prone) areas exist so that water is readily available without any objection to transfer from the former to the latter. But in practice, people in so-called surplus areas do not agree that they have spare water which can be transferred to other, faraway 3

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areas. Startling news for some and somewhat dreamy for others is the resurrected plan of interlinking the rivers of India. Cited by former President Kalam and pushed by former Chief Justice Kirpal, the sheer grandeur of the idea is meant to appeal to people facing drought and flood. Anyone who knows what river systems are, what inter-basin transfers bring forth, and the politics and economics of large river valley and inter-basin projects, will know that whatever water this plan holds is but a mirage. We have seen the politics that come with any human intervention in rivers flowing since generations from one administrative unit to another. With all the water that has flown or not flown into Cauvery, one cannot take seriously a grandiose dream of linking all the rivers. But hearing it from the highest echelons of the State and judiciary, one cannot wait for some agency of the same state to bring out the plus and minus of it. A hasty beginning may not be prevented unless civil society, experts, and common people respond. Inter-basin water transfers are complex human interventions on natural systems that can have profound adverse as well as beneficial social, economic and environmental implications. Indias plan to interlink its rivers (ILR) and to transfer water may, according to one set of views, generate positive benefits through improved and expanded
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irrigation and may also contribute to flood and drought hazards mitigation for India, although the magnitudes are debatable. However, there are opposing views, in the context of India itself, that the interlinking plan is economically prohibitive, fraught with uncertainties, and has potential for disastrous and irreversible adverse after-effects. Water deficit can be reduced through improved water management without large scale engineering interventions. Moreover many of the rivers involved, particularly in the Himalayan component, are international and, therefore, the scheme has major implications for other riparians. Indeed, the planned transfer of water from the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers will adversely impact Bangladesh socially, economically and environmentallyunless arrangements are made to maintain historical flows, which is unlikely to be feasible. Any multipurpose storage reservoirs in upstream countries, such as Nepal and Bhutan, would facilitate energy generation and other benefits but will also cause adverse environmental and social impacts to these countries. Therefore, the ILR plan will further complicate existing water sharing and management problems between India and other co-basin countries. Strengthening and expansion of cooperative efforts among the co-basin

countries for water resources development and sharing can generate economic benefits for the people of these countries and also foster co-riparian relationships. But somehow this important project was was dumped after the change of government. Link canals have both short and longterm impact on the economy. The short-term impact of the link canal is in the form of increased employment opportunities and the growth of the services sector. Sectors supplying crucial inputs to the construction sector, such as cement and iron and steel, also grow. In the medium to long term, the major impact of link canals is through increased and assured irrigation. Although the major and direct gainers of the ILR programme will be agriculture and agriculturedependent households, the entire economy will benefit because of increased agriculture production. The full impact of the ILR programme on economy will be realised only when construction is completed, reservoirs filled and the water reaches the ultimate users for irrigation, drinking water, industrial purposes and hydropower generation. Until construction is complete, the impact of the ILR programme will be through government investment. On February 27 while giving the go-ahead to the controversial project of inter-linking of rivers, the Supreme Court specifically 4

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mentioned the benefits flood control and drought moderation As plans for inter-basin transfers of water across vast distances, from surplus to deficit areas, appear to have got a lot of attraction for a country exposed all too often to droughts and floods, these need to be seriously evaluated and debated. As such while large-scale transfers of water can be expensive, we should also explore whether there are cheaper and better alternatives. Any neat division between deficit and surplus areas becomes more of a problem in these times of climate change when erratic weather patterns are more frequently seen. Some time ago we had a curious situation when arid, deficit parts of western India (including Rajasthan) had excess rain and experienced floods while flood-prone parts of eastern India (including Assam) had drought-like conditions. If billions had already been spent to create an infra-structure from transferring surplus water from east to west, just imagine what a difficult situation would have arisen at the time of such erratic weather. So the basic conditions of problem-free transfer of water from the countrys surplus to deficit areas simply do not exist. The tensions are likely to be much greater when inter-basin transfers also involve neighbouring countries, a reality that cannot be avoided in the existing geography
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of national-level links as many rivers pass through other countries. As soon as the grand looking river-linking plans are transferred from paper to reality, we enter the real world of shifting rivers bringing enormous silt loads, landslides, hills, plateaus, seismic belts, gorges, ravines, bends and curves which make the task of large-scale transfer of water difficult, enormously expensive, energy-intensive and hazardous. If rivers had been created by engineers and not by nature, they would have flowed along predictable straight paths to suit our needs. But rivers do not generally like to abide by the wishes and commands of engineers. Even when the might of modern technology forces them to do so, they sometimes seek revenge in very destructive ways breaking free and causing floods. Of course no one has had the time and inclination to explore how the bio-diversity flourishing in a particular river system will react when it is linked to another river. But the problems faced by the vast majority who are adversely affected by dams and displacements of this gigantic river-linking project have to be faced surely and squarely. This brings us to the question of whether safer, less disruptive and cheaper alternatives are available for reducing the distress of floods and droughts. Evidence suggests that even villages which

experience very low rainfall, as in the desert areas of Rajasthan, have evolved a range of local methods of water conservation and collection which, if followed up carefully, take them towards water self-sufficiency to a large extent. It is true that in modern times there is pressure leading to the breakdown or inadequacy of some of these self-reliant systems. Nevertheless it can be said that a combination of traditional watercollection/conservation practices and other drought-proofing methods which also use modern technology still provides the best available answer (also the cheapest one) to water scarcity in drought-prone areas. In the case of flood-prone areas we should not ignore the resilience of local communities where people learnt from early childhood how to cope with rising rivers. Their ability has been adversely affected by increasing drainage obstruction created by thoughtless development works because of which floods sometimes become more fierce, creating prolonged water logging. So what people really need is a good drainage plan so that flood water clears quickly combined with a package of livelihood, health, education and other support suited to the needs of flood-prone areas and communities. This will work out much cheaper and more effective than all the dams, diversions and embankments put together. So the 5

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question of what people of drought-prone areas and floodprone areas really need should be taken in consultation with them. Do they want huge water diversions and transfers with all their dams and displacements, or do they prefer more funds for trusted, small-scale local solutions? Prior experience teaches that we must study basic aspects of each river basin, including catchment area treatment, command area development, benchmark survey of the affected population, impacts of the reservoir and canal system on farmers, and fisheries, and public health. Environmental Impact Assessment will be inevitable. Compensatory and mitigatory plans must be rationally conceived. Where the canal network extends, will surveyors assess whether soil is irrigable through surface water flows without waterlogging and salinisation that has taken a million hectares ofIndian Land? What would be the impacts on food security already in crisis, of a sudden change in cropping pattern? Enough warnings have been given. The River Valley Guidelines (1983) discuss environmental and social impacts due to transfer of water and people beyond suitability. Unless these become part of the project planning, they are neither considered nor dealt with. Struggles in the Narmada Valley
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and on other projects pushed due to political expediency without complete appraisal, have brought out the seriousness of large scale displacement as well as impacts on and injustice to the proposed beneficiaries. Basic questions demand investigation. Will such a linking of rivers actually prevent

network, of whom 23,500 will lose more than 25% of their land, and 2,000 will become landless. None is considered project-affected nor eligible for rehabilitation.For intrariver basin transfers, the principle of subsidiarity requires that water be harnessed from where it first drops.

drought? Or merely transfer drought? What will be the extent of displacement, and provisions for rehabilitation? Canals also displace. In the Sardar Sarovar project, 1,50,000 landholders stand to lose land due to the canal

The whole crisis of water management today is due to total neglect of water harvesting, either because it is considered peripheral or to be a non-replicable, nonprofitable micro-level experiment. Therefore we see the destruction 6

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of cultures, communities, and ecosystems, creating conflicts between states, as in Cauvery, and between state and people, as in Narmada. Conflicts are dealt with more politically than scientifically. If this happens in just one river basin, imagine the consequences across several river basins. Interstate disputes could take decades to resolve. As our national highways have become conveyor belts for enormously polluting noxious emissions, the huge interlink threatens to become an open sewage garlanding India. The canals, designed for carrying irrigation waters rather than large peak flows, will not be sufficient to control or divert floods in the northern states but will transfer silt. Several large dams built to provide the head and storage required to supply the canals will permanently submerge fertile lands, forests, village communities and towns, leaving millions of people displaced or dispossessed. Any attempt to obtain full information, question impacts and demand just compensation requires sacrifice by communities living on the natural resources. Interlinking Himalayan and peninsular rivers is budgeted at Rs. 5.6 lakh crores, even before the completion of feasibility studies, expected by 2008, at a cost of 150 crores. Have alternatives been assessed? When pending water projects require Rs. 80,000 crores to be completed and made usable
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as per Parliamentary Committee report, is such a plan viable, scientific, or democratic? There is no time, space, or process indicated for participation of communities whose riparian rights must be considered, and who face upstream impacts, which are now known, and lesserknown downstream impacts. Annual Irrigation budgets of state governments are about 1000 crores each. From where will the money for inter-linking rivers come even if states pool resources for the next several decades? At the cost of local irrigation projects of the true and tested kind that have kept India self-sufficient. In this esoteric experiment of Interlinking rivers, India itself is the guinea pig. It will be nothing short of criminal if water is not treated properly and the water crisis worsens. Already Shivnath river in Chattisgarh is privatised, and the contractor has snatched away peoples right even to drinking water. People of the country deserve to know if this centralised plan will nationalise the water only to privatise, just as national public property is doled - not sold - out at reduced prices, whether it is oil, gas, land or mineral resources, to private companies, foreign and domestic. The interlinking of rivers programme (ILR) programme is aimed at linking different surplus rivers of country with the deficient rivers so that the excess water from surplus region could be diverted

to deficient region. This would help in increasing irrigation intensity in the country, increasing water availability for drinking and industrial purposes, mitigating effect of drought and floods to a certain extent. Basic purpose of the this study is to assess the macro impact of the ILR programme on Indian economy. In this study macro impacts are analysed both at short- as well as long-term. Short-term impact is analysed with the help of a social accounting matrix for the year 1999-00 at 2000-01 prices. Shortterm impact helps us in evaluating the impact of the ILR programme on different sectors of the economy. Longterm impact of the ILR programme is evaluated with the help of a macro econometric model. Water is not like cement or concrete - it is life. Just distribution and full appreciation of its economic, financial, environmental and social dimensions must be part of the planning process. The 73rd amendment and the Tribal Self-rule Act direct that peoples consent and consultation cannot be sidelined. Rivers support millions of people. A grandiose scheme such as interlinking would be likely to involve international lending agencies. Before anything starts, let people know what is in the mind of the president, the ministers and sanctioned by the outgoing chief justice within a few days. 7

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