India’s River Linking Project
Draft
India’s River Linking Project:
The State of the Debate1
Tushaar Shah
Upali Amrasinghe
Peter McCornick
Abstract
The idea of linking water surplus Himalayan rivers with water scarce parts of western and peninsular
India has been doing the rounds for the past 150 years. However, the idea has now got detailed in the form of a mega-project for inter-linking of Himalayan and peninsular region. Never in the past has this idea generated as much discussion and debate as during the recent years after the Supreme Court of India enjoined the Government of India to implement the grandiose project by 2016, an impossible timeframe. The Indian proposal for the mega project of inter-linking of rivers (ILR) has come at a time when large dams and canal infrastructure are facing an all-time low. Environmental groups are seriously questioning the ecological costs of large dams; and other NGOs are asking whether the human displacement and misery these cause, given India’s poor track record of rehabilitation of the displaced populations, would permit these to pass an objective social cost-benefit test. To add to these, the performance of public irrigation projects has continuously been slipping. Finally, there is widespread questioning of the justification for such investment when agriculture is shrinking in water-scarce western and peninsular India and future food demand appear largely over-projected.
This paper takes stock of the debate so far that has emerged around India’s ILR project. If the paper sounds lopsided in the critical picture it creates about the ILR project, it is because the debate itself has been hopelessly lopsided --with the protagonists of the project unable to take on the antagonists on either their rhetoric or their analytics.
In concluding this survey, we however argue that the idea of ILR may have come a decade too soon; and that a slew of upcoming contingencies will not only change the tenor of the debate around interbasin water
India’s River Linking Project:
The State of the Debate1
Tushaar Shah
Upali Amrasinghe
Peter McCornick
Abstract
The idea of linking water surplus Himalayan rivers with water scarce parts of western and peninsular
India has been doing the rounds for the past 150 years. However, the idea has now got detailed in the form of a mega-project for inter-linking of Himalayan and peninsular region. Never in the past has this idea generated as much discussion and debate as during the recent years after the Supreme Court of India enjoined the Government of India to implement the grandiose project by 2016, an impossible timeframe. The Indian proposal for the mega project of inter-linking of rivers (ILR) has come at a time when large dams and canal infrastructure are facing an all-time low. Environmental groups are seriously questioning the ecological costs of large dams; and other NGOs are asking whether the human displacement and misery these cause, given India’s poor track record of rehabilitation of the displaced populations, would permit these to pass an objective social cost-benefit test. To add to these, the performance of public irrigation projects has continuously been slipping. Finally, there is widespread questioning of the justification for such investment when agriculture is shrinking in water-scarce western and peninsular India and future food demand appear largely over-projected.
This paper takes stock of the debate so far that has emerged around India’s ILR project. If the paper sounds lopsided in the critical picture it creates about the ILR project, it is because the debate itself has been hopelessly lopsided --with the protagonists of the project unable to take on the antagonists on either their rhetoric or their analytics.
In concluding this survey, we however argue that the idea of ILR may have come a decade too soon; and that a slew of upcoming contingencies will not only change the tenor of the debate around interbasin water
References: Amarasinghe,U,A., Sharma, B., Aloysius, N., Scott, C., Smakhtin, V., de Fraiture, C., 2005, Spatial Variation in Wter Supply and Demand across River Basins in India Science, Vol. 313, 25 August, 2006. AAAS, Washington D. C., USA Verghese, B.G Colorado State University. 2006. http://waterknowledge.colostate.edu/histbigt.htm Earle, A Falkenmark, M., Lundqvist, J., and Widstrand, C. 1989. Macro-scale water scarcity requires micro-scale approaches: Aspects of vulnerability in semi-arid development IUCN. 2003. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project: Environmental Flow Allocations in an International River Lanka:IWMI Iyer, R.(2003) Water: Perspectives, Issues Concerns, at New Delhi, Sage Publications Kumar, D., Singh, O.P., Samad, M., Purohit, C., and Didyala, M.S., 2006a. Water Productivity of Irrigated Agriculture in India: Potential areas for improvement Kumar, D. M., Samad, M., Amarasinghe, U., and Singh, O.P. 2006b. Water Savings and yield Enhansing Technologies” How far can they contribute to water productivity Mahmood, A. and Kundu, A. 2006. Demographic Projections for India 2006-2051: Regional variations (Draft prepared for the IWMI-CPWF project on “Stretegic Analysis of Rath, N. (2003). Linking of rivers: Some elementary arithmetic. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 38(29): 3032-3033 Shah, T. Aditi D. R., Asad S. Q. and Wang, J., 2003. Sustaining Asia’s Groundwater Boom: An Overview of Issues and Evidence.Natural Resources Forum, 27 (2003) Shiva, Vandana (2003). River Linking: False Assumptions, Flawed Recipes. New Delhi, Navdanya Sinha, S.K., Sinha, A.K. and Chandra, S. 2005 Interlinking of Rivers- Issues and Challenges, In Volume I – Water for Life with Special Reference to Interlinking of Rivers. Snaddon, C.D., Davis, B.R., and Wishart, M. 1999. A Global overview of inter-basin Water Transfer Schemes, with and appraisal of their Ecological, Socio-economic and Sociopolitical implications and recommendations for their management Vombatkere, S.G. 2003. Interlinking: Salvation or folly? http://www.indiatogether.org/2003/ jan/wtr-sgvintlink.htm