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Water is undoubtedly the most vital resources in any country’s economic development. Apart from its use for drinking and other domestic purposes, it is an essential input for agriculture, industry and power generation. Traditionally, irrigated agriculture has been consuming the bulk of India’s fresh water resources. But in recent years, due to industrialization and urbanization, the demand for municipal and industrial uses of water has been increasing, causing considerable pressure on irrigated agriculture.
The latest estimate for total water resource potential of the country is around 1869 billion cubic metre. However, all this cannot be used for beneficial purposes, the major constraint being the necessity to store the flood flows which occur during the monsoon months from June to October. The quantum of utilisable surface water is estimated at around 690 BCM and that of groundwater around 450 BCM.
Creating Storage Capacity
The distribution of India’s water resources is highly uneven. As much as 32 per cent of the country’s water resources flows down the Brahmaputra and Barak rivers. Another 28 per cent flows through the Ganga. Floods are a recurring feature of these rivers. At the same time, large areas in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu face recurring droughts. The large-scale migration of people from water- starved areas is a serious concern in our country. Creation of storages and inter-basin transfer of water from surplus to water-short regions could be one option to overcome this anomaly.
Although river basin would be a basic unit for water resource planning, this may not lead to the optimal utilisation of the surplus water resources in various regions of the country. There are many basins in the country, which are surplus in water resources even in the ultimate stage of development, while some basins are already facing water shortages. For meeting its shortages in the deficit regions, long distance inter-basin transfers of water may be necessary. This would lead to an equitable distribution and optimum utilization of the existing water resources.
The need for National Policy guidelines for water allocation of inter-state rivers amongst the States has been engaging the attention of the Union Ministry of Water Resources for quite some time. The Draft National Policy Guidelines on this issue was discussed in the second meeting of the National Water Board (1994) and National Water Resources Council meeting in 1996. An important feature of the draft guidelines is that the Center is proposed to be a party to look after environmental concerns, pressing need of non-co-basin States, needs dictated by international relations and obligations and the needs of national waterways for navigation.
A national consensus in this regard can evolve by adopting a national policy. In fact, the National Water Policy already adopted by the National Resources Council states that: “Water should be made available to water-short areas by transfer from other areas including transfers from one river basin to another, based on a national perspective, after taking into account the requirements of the areas/basins”.
Long distance inter-basin transfer of water is not a new concept and has been in practice in India for over -five centuries. The Western Yamuna Canal and the Agra Canal built in Mughal times are good examples. Water was carried from the Himalayas to the distant parts of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The Kurnool-Cuddappah Canal (1860-1870) and Periyar Vaigai (1896) are other good examples of inter-basin water transfers executed in India in the 19th Century. In this century, the Rajasthan Canal Project diverts waters from the Himalayas to the deserts of Rajasthan. Other important inter-basin water transfer schemes in the country are the Parambikulam-Aliyar, Telgu-Ganga and Sardar Sarovar Projects.
Suggestions for a National Water Grid for transferring surplus water available in some regions to the water-deficit areas have been made from time to time. Two proposals put forth earlier in the seventies, which attracted considerable attention, are the Garland Canal Scheme by Captain Dastur and the National Water Grid by Dr. K.L. Rao. Captain Dastur’s suggestion consists of two canals; one called Himalayan Canal and the second a Garland Canal running along the central and southern regions of India. The suggestion was examined and found to be technically unsound and economically prohibitive. Dr.K.L. Rao’s suggestion of National Water Grid advocated a Ganga-Cauvery link along with a few other links including the Brahamaputra-Ganga link. This proposal was also examined and cost-wise found to be prohibitive. It was then that the Ministry of Water Resources formulated a national perspective for water development in August 1980 comprising two components, mainly, Himalayan River Development and Peninsular River Development.
It was in this light that the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) was set up in 1982 by a Government of India resolution, as an autonomous society under the Ministry of Water Resources to study the feasibility of the National Perspective. The objective of NWDA, inter-alia, is to carry out detailed surveys and investigations of possible reservoir sites and interconnecting links in order to establish the feasibility of the proposal of Peninsular Rivers Development and Himalayan Rivers Development components forming part of the National Perspective for Water Resource Development. The agency has so far identified 36 water transfer links, 17 under Peninsular Component and 19 under Himalayan Component for taking up for detailed studies.
*Freelance Writer
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