The Hindu : More opposition to project to link rivers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 17, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

More opposition to project to link rivers

By T.S. Ranganna

Bangalore May 16. Amidst the hype over the formation of the Task Force on Linking of Rivers, opposition to the ambitious proposal of the Union Government seems to be growing.

S.N. Guru Rau, former Chief Engineer of the Central Water Commission, has said that the diversion of a river could pose a public health hazard, and called for a study before implementing the proposal.

In a paper, "Linking of Ganga-Cauvery: Is it essential?", presented at a seminar on the issue, Mr. Rau said the proposal to link the Ganga with the Cauvery, which had been in cold storage for decades, had suddenly found favour with political leaders. Wide publicity was also being given to the proposal. "Every river has its own established regime, and its study on a scientific basis calls for an extensive, explorative, geo-technical, hydro-geological, and socio-environmental assessment," he said.

He said that a case study of the Sardar Sarovar project across the Narmada vividly portrayed the inadequacies of impact studies on dams in the Narmada Basin. The independent Bradford Morse review report prepared in 1992 castigated the World Bank, the Union Government, State governments, and the Narmada authorities for their failure to take into account the findings of studies, and led to the withdrawal of funding for the project, he added. Mr. Rau said if a project involving one river system threw up complications, one envisaging linking a river in the north to a river in the south, over varying geo-morphological terrains, would be more complex. He charged that the Centre had put forward the proposal to link rivers apparently to divert attention from its "failure" to resolve the Cauvery dispute.

Integration of resources

A paper presented by Y. Lingaraju, Director of the Water Resource Development Organisation of the Karnataka Government, said 86 taluks had been identified as drought-prone in the State. To mitigate drought, water management had to be planned by integrating surface water and groundwater. The Karnataka State Remote Sensing Application Centre was involved in preparing action plans.

He said there were large tracts of dryland districts where the groundwater resource was depleted to a large extent. Any effort, such as a watershed programme, would not bring back the geohydrological situation that existed earlier. Water from surplus basins should be brought to Gadag, Chitradurga, Bellary, Tumkur, and Kolar districts.

The buzzword was linking of rivers. But, he said: "Because Karnataka has an elevated position topographically, the chances of getting the benefit of Ganga-Cauvery linkage is very poor. Although the State has high potential in the west-flowing rivers, it is a Herculean task to link (them) because of topographic variations and environmental issues." An environmentally benign and cost-effective surface water transfer was yet to be worked out, he added.

Jagdeesh Mavinakere, former irrigation engineer in Maharashtra, said that linking the Netravathi and the Hemavathi would benefit Nagamangala, Tiptur, Turuvekere, and Gubbi taluks. Similarly, a linkage between the Krishna and the Penna would benefit Deodurg, Lingasagur, Kustagi and Sandur taluks.

D. Gangappa, Convenor of the Akhila Bharata Jalasangama Andolan, expressed apprehension over the implementation of the project to divert the Mahanadi in Orissa towards Manibhadra, Pochampalli, and Polavaram by constructing dams on the coastline. This would cause a catastrophic situation in the area. He suggested that the project, which would not help Karnataka, be diverted towards Chhatisgarh, Telangana, and Rayalaseema, and linked to Bidar, Gulbarga, Bijapur, Dharwad, Raichur, Bellary, Chitradurga, Tumkur and Kolar through Maharashtra. From Karnataka, the river could be diverted to towns such as Dharmapuri, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Salem, Tiruchi, Karur, Madurai, and Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu, and finally to the Cauvery river, he said.

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