and/or www.mantra.com/jai (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
2010-09-08 10:34:59 UTC
Revive the river-linking project
By M. S. Menon
Op-Ed
The Pioneer
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
The solution to India's misery on account of droughts and floods lies
in harnessing the water of its national rivers by linking them to
each other. This should be done without further delay
The havoc created by the recurring floods and droughts annually in
India is indicative of our failure to learn from past mistakes to
take corrective actions in managing the abundant water resources we
have. The available option of linking the rivers to contain these
disasters, the Indian River Linking Project, though recognised three
decades back, and a National Plan for interlinking rivers was
approved by the Government of India then, not even a single link has
been constructed so far. The project is limping from prefeasibility
to feasibility studies, from preliminary to detailed investigations,
and the stage of construction is nowhere in sight.
The reasons for this state of affairs in the project implementation
are not far to seek. The Union Government's lethargy in taking even
the minimum preliminary actions needed in this regard has resulted in
the tardy progress.
Presently, the States even within a basin are busy quarrelling with
each other on their water rights. There are no basin-wise
organisations which could provide a platform for serious discussions
among the co-basin States and the Union Government, whenever
approached, takes its own time to hold meetings with the disputants
to sort out the issues. If there had been a River Basin Organisation
in place, the problems could have been settled at the basin level
itself.
Such an institution would have been able to bring about consensus
among the States regarding all water issues and would have also
encouraged them to look beyond water rights to concentrate on water
needs for promoting joint ventures in areas like hydropower, flood
control, etc, to yield benefits for all.
The National Water Resources Council, chaired by the Prime Minister
with the Chief Ministers of the States and Union Territories as
members, is the only forum available now to discuss on water issues
at the national level. But due to various reasons, the Council's
meetings are rarely held and even at such meetings, decisions are
seldom taken.
Though the existing River Board's Act (1956) has provisions for
setting up RBOs, it does not give the requisite authority to the
Centre to regulate the inter-State rivers through them.Interestingly,
Centre has not empowered itself to set up such organisations with
requisite legal backing by amending the Act. Consequently, the
disputes are never settled and billions of precious fresh water flows
unutilised to the sea every year resulting in the flood-drought
syndrome.
The Union Government, whenever confronted with water disputes among
the States, takes the usual stand that water is a State subject and
Central intervention is possible only by amending the Constitution.
Though many high-powered bodies had advised the Centre that 'Entry
56, List 1' gives ample powers to the Union Government to regulate
inter-State rivers, it does not appear to be inclined to take action
using such powers, though the rivers contribute more than 80 per cent
of the annual water resources.
It is thus evident that water, which is at the centre of all
development activities, is not high enough on the political agenda to
promote initiatives to generate benefits.
Due to the uneven distribution of water in space and time leading to
endemic and sporadic problems, interlinking of the surplus rivers
with deficit ones continues to be the available option to contain the
recurring miseries. But, apart from Union Government's inaction in
empowering itself to meet the hurdles in implementing the project,
one another constraint is the lack of consensus among States
regarding the surplus water availability. Water rich States insist
that they have no surplus water to spare and they do not want to
negotiate away their future water uses.
To disentangle the issues that complicate the process of negotiations
and to accelerate the project implementation, immediate action is
needed to set up an RBO for each river basin with a broad mandate and
authority for developing the concept of catchment hydro-solidarity
among the co-basin States. This would provide the requisite platform
for discussions relating to water needs, compensating for water
spared, etc, so as to bring about the needed consensus among the
partners. By fixing a cost for the water, both the donor and the done
States would be encouraged to optimally use and save water through
efficient use, facilitating a win-win situation for both through the
transfer.
Critics with vested interests have objected to the project raising
the bogey of environmental impacts while transferring water from a
wet to a dry area, conveniently ignoring the facts prevailing in the
existing water transfer projects in the country and abroad. Prophets
of doom have condemned the project stating that the IRL canal system
would prove to be an open sewer criss-crossing the country. They had
earlier made similar forecasts on the Golden Quadrilateral Project,
warning that the national highways would become networks of conveyor
belts spreading noxious emissions!
Self-appointed 'eco-Taliban' in their khap panchayats have also
decreed -- 'no dams, no river linking projects'. These critics have
only one objective as proved time and again: To remain in the lime
light for their continued sustenance. Hence their criticism should be
ignored.
Many studies carried out in the past by National Water Development
Agency and other expert organisations had confirmed the feasibility
of the project. Hence let us not waste time again carrying out too
much of analysis to paralyse us into inaction. We have to remain
vigilant of the vested interests and embedded activists who are
interested only to sabotage the project to achieve their set goals.
The Union Government has no option but to use the available
constitutional powers and go in a big way to implement the project
without further loss of time. The scene has to shift from rhetoric to
action to make the IRL project a reality.
http://dailypioneer.com/281629/Revive-the-river-linking-project.html
More at:
http://www.dailypioneer.com
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
Since newsgroup posts are being removed
by forgery by one or more net terrorists,
this post may be reposted several times.
By M. S. Menon
Op-Ed
The Pioneer
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
The solution to India's misery on account of droughts and floods lies
in harnessing the water of its national rivers by linking them to
each other. This should be done without further delay
The havoc created by the recurring floods and droughts annually in
India is indicative of our failure to learn from past mistakes to
take corrective actions in managing the abundant water resources we
have. The available option of linking the rivers to contain these
disasters, the Indian River Linking Project, though recognised three
decades back, and a National Plan for interlinking rivers was
approved by the Government of India then, not even a single link has
been constructed so far. The project is limping from prefeasibility
to feasibility studies, from preliminary to detailed investigations,
and the stage of construction is nowhere in sight.
The reasons for this state of affairs in the project implementation
are not far to seek. The Union Government's lethargy in taking even
the minimum preliminary actions needed in this regard has resulted in
the tardy progress.
Presently, the States even within a basin are busy quarrelling with
each other on their water rights. There are no basin-wise
organisations which could provide a platform for serious discussions
among the co-basin States and the Union Government, whenever
approached, takes its own time to hold meetings with the disputants
to sort out the issues. If there had been a River Basin Organisation
in place, the problems could have been settled at the basin level
itself.
Such an institution would have been able to bring about consensus
among the States regarding all water issues and would have also
encouraged them to look beyond water rights to concentrate on water
needs for promoting joint ventures in areas like hydropower, flood
control, etc, to yield benefits for all.
The National Water Resources Council, chaired by the Prime Minister
with the Chief Ministers of the States and Union Territories as
members, is the only forum available now to discuss on water issues
at the national level. But due to various reasons, the Council's
meetings are rarely held and even at such meetings, decisions are
seldom taken.
Though the existing River Board's Act (1956) has provisions for
setting up RBOs, it does not give the requisite authority to the
Centre to regulate the inter-State rivers through them.Interestingly,
Centre has not empowered itself to set up such organisations with
requisite legal backing by amending the Act. Consequently, the
disputes are never settled and billions of precious fresh water flows
unutilised to the sea every year resulting in the flood-drought
syndrome.
The Union Government, whenever confronted with water disputes among
the States, takes the usual stand that water is a State subject and
Central intervention is possible only by amending the Constitution.
Though many high-powered bodies had advised the Centre that 'Entry
56, List 1' gives ample powers to the Union Government to regulate
inter-State rivers, it does not appear to be inclined to take action
using such powers, though the rivers contribute more than 80 per cent
of the annual water resources.
It is thus evident that water, which is at the centre of all
development activities, is not high enough on the political agenda to
promote initiatives to generate benefits.
Due to the uneven distribution of water in space and time leading to
endemic and sporadic problems, interlinking of the surplus rivers
with deficit ones continues to be the available option to contain the
recurring miseries. But, apart from Union Government's inaction in
empowering itself to meet the hurdles in implementing the project,
one another constraint is the lack of consensus among States
regarding the surplus water availability. Water rich States insist
that they have no surplus water to spare and they do not want to
negotiate away their future water uses.
To disentangle the issues that complicate the process of negotiations
and to accelerate the project implementation, immediate action is
needed to set up an RBO for each river basin with a broad mandate and
authority for developing the concept of catchment hydro-solidarity
among the co-basin States. This would provide the requisite platform
for discussions relating to water needs, compensating for water
spared, etc, so as to bring about the needed consensus among the
partners. By fixing a cost for the water, both the donor and the done
States would be encouraged to optimally use and save water through
efficient use, facilitating a win-win situation for both through the
transfer.
Critics with vested interests have objected to the project raising
the bogey of environmental impacts while transferring water from a
wet to a dry area, conveniently ignoring the facts prevailing in the
existing water transfer projects in the country and abroad. Prophets
of doom have condemned the project stating that the IRL canal system
would prove to be an open sewer criss-crossing the country. They had
earlier made similar forecasts on the Golden Quadrilateral Project,
warning that the national highways would become networks of conveyor
belts spreading noxious emissions!
Self-appointed 'eco-Taliban' in their khap panchayats have also
decreed -- 'no dams, no river linking projects'. These critics have
only one objective as proved time and again: To remain in the lime
light for their continued sustenance. Hence their criticism should be
ignored.
Many studies carried out in the past by National Water Development
Agency and other expert organisations had confirmed the feasibility
of the project. Hence let us not waste time again carrying out too
much of analysis to paralyse us into inaction. We have to remain
vigilant of the vested interests and embedded activists who are
interested only to sabotage the project to achieve their set goals.
The Union Government has no option but to use the available
constitutional powers and go in a big way to implement the project
without further loss of time. The scene has to shift from rhetoric to
action to make the IRL project a reality.
http://dailypioneer.com/281629/Revive-the-river-linking-project.html
More at:
http://www.dailypioneer.com
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
Since newsgroup posts are being removed
by forgery by one or more net terrorists,
this post may be reposted several times.