RESEARCH REFERENCE AND TRAINING DIVISION
Vol.No. XLVI 26 March 2003 B.No.19
Linking Rivers
		The twenty-first century has been declared as the century of water. In response citizens of the world need to make sure that water, one of the five elements in creation, is harnessed and does not disappear. This backgrounder seeks to provide some reference information on the efforts of the Indian Government in tackling the water problem being faced by the States.
RESEARCH, REFERENCE AND TRAINING DIVISION (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting)

India's population, over 1,000 million, is expected to rise anywhere between 1,500 to 1,800 million by 2050. Water availability per capita is slated to decline by 33 per cent. Due to high variability in rainfall patterns, some parts of the country suffer heavy floods, while others face drought. The problems transcend the political boundaries of States and have a wider impact on the economy.

India has a monsoon climate. Except for a small coastal area in the South, almost the entire rainfall occurs during three to four monsoon months. Thus, cultivation during non-monsoon months is irrigation-dependent. A characteristic of the monsoon climate is variability of rainfall from year to year. India has an average of one in five below-normal rainfall years.

The problem of drinking water has become far more acute, both in rural and in urban areas and about 1.25 lakh habitations still have less than 40 litres water per capita per day. Increase in population causes water scarcity in many areas and there is also a competing demand for water by different sectors like irrigation, industry and domestic use. Depletion in ground water table is causing many drinking water sources to go dry and the problem becomes more acute in summer months. If rainwater is properly harvested, this could solve many of our domestic and agricultural water needs.

Water management is perhaps the most serious problem facing the nation now. The critical problem is the uneven distribution of the run-offs and precipitation rates during the monsoon season. While the Brahmaputra and Mahanadi river basins regularly face floods due to heavy run-offs, most other regions (exception to Western Ghat regions) face recurrent drought situations. Drought occurs in over 80 per cent of the country's land area even if there is a shortfall in rains of only 25 per cent from the national annual average of 554mm (for the monsoon period, June-July).

The vast spatial and temporal variations in the availability of water heighten the problem that the country does not actually face water crisis but because of the unequitable distribution. Thus, even though the per capita availability of water in India is among the best in the world, the utilisable quantity is much less because of dependence on monsoon and because of the fact that 85 to 90 per cent of the river run-offs occur during monsoon. Even during the monsoon months, the run-offs are uneven in the river basins. This situation leads to a key design criterion for water management: the storing and transferring of surplus waters.

On the one hand, most of the rain water flows into sea without being harnessed and on the other hand, ground water is depleting due to its over-extraction. Some States like Bihar are experiencing a "double-phenomenon" like floods in one part and drought in another. Despite bountiful natural resources, the country had not succeeded in harnessing them adequately.

A national perspective for interlinking of rivers was framed by the Ministry of Water Resources in August 1980. The National Water Development Agency, NWDA, was set up in 1982 for the sole purpose of further studying the transfer of water from surplus river basins to deficit areas. The total estimated kilometer of river links will exceed 5,000 and together with a matrix of canal systems and the long coastline of 7,517 km, the potential exists to create 40,000 km of inland waterways. In addition to this, many minor irrigation works and storage facilities will be constructed in all the States as part of the plan since the links cover virtually all States.

Considering these conditions the National Water Development Agency had examined some measures and a feasibility study was undertaken. The national perspective as well as the NWDA studies has two components (a) Himalayan component and (b) Peninsular component to be linked on the Mahanadi. A synergy is also needed between the government and the people as the government alone can not solve the problem.

Following a directive from the Supreme Court, the Government of India announced a project in principle in Parliament in May 2000 to link six major rivers as part of the long-term plan to revive the Ganga-Cauvery link to tackle the water problem in the country. The project, spread over ten to twelve years, as a whole would cost an average of Rs 33,000 crores per annum and hence the Government proposes to take it up in stages and initially, linking of six rivers would be taken up for which details are being worked out. This will be a phenomenal project to unite all the people of the country and give a developmental impetus of unprecedented magnitude.

India is also studying the Chinese massive water diversion project which was only launched in December 2002. The Chinese project, currently touted as the world's largest water diversion venture, will divert water from the mighty Yangtze River in the south to the country's thirsty north. The project will be the biggest of its kind in the world and the biggest engineering programme in China. It actually consists of three canals running about 1,300 km through the country's eastern, middle and western parts.

The proposed water diversion project in India at an estimated cost of around Rs. 5,60,000 crores and to commence by 2004, when completed in 2016, would be more massive in scale, costs and benefits accrued.

Drought conditions prevailing in some States including Karnataka, Gujarat, Bihar and Rajasthan have brought down the annual per capita water availability from 1,800 to 1,000 cubic meters in the Cauvery and Sabarmathi basins. But the situation is not as bad in the rest of the country. Plans for 31 river links to divert the waters from rivers in the Himalayan range to those in the peninsular region are being studied in an effort to provide a lasting solution to the water crisis. The pre-feasibility study on all these links has been completed and in some cases the feasibility study is over.

Genuine co-operation among the riparian States is vital. The thought that water is a national asset must permeate through all sections. Only then inter-basin transfer of water can be successful. Even in the riparian or inter-State river basin disputes, the Centre intervened only when the States approached it.

The interlinking of rivers will change the shape of India. It should be seen as an opportunity to integrate and synergise the country. The project would create new employment opportunities. It can create jobs in agriculture, in construction sector -- there will be a new demand for steel and cement -- and in the process we can address the social, ecological and economic problems.

India's vision document 2050 prepared by the Planning Commission indicates that the future food requirement is likely to be around 450 million tonnes. India has to remain self-sufficient to meet future needs through enhancement of food production from the present 200 million tonnes to about 450 million tonnes. Even after exploiting all the available intra-basin water resources by conventional methods and raising the irrigation potential, the need for augmenting it will remain.

With rapid economic development, the need for drinking water and municipal and industrial purposes will necessarily increase. Many of these additions will be concentrated in small areas; calling for centralized supplies from reservoirs behind dams and supported by intra or inter-basin transfers where necessary. Need for energy, already in short supply, is slated to grow exponentially. Hydropower, one of the cleanest forms of energy sources, is economical and there is a vast potential yet awaiting exploitation. Interlinking of rivers provides an added potential for generating power to the tune of 35,000 MW installed capacity.

The freshwater availability due to rainfall in the country, after deducting evaporation, transpiration, consumption is considered as dynamic resource. Out of this, only a meager amount of water alone has been developed so far and deployed for different uses. Still there is a need to deploy added water resources beyond the present available mark through conventional schemes to the extent feasible, by employing non-conventional means like inter-basin transfers to meet the ultimate needs. Given the long gestation period of water infrastructure projects, a beginning has to be made as soon as possible for inter-basin transfer programme on a national scale.

River linking has been in vogue in India even prior to the 20^th century. Sir Arthur Cotton, who pioneered the development of water resources in Southern India from 1839 onwards, had proposed a plan for interlinking of Indian rivers for inland navigation. A small portion of the plan was implemented but was abandoned later in favour of railways. In south India there is transfer of water of the west-flowing Periyar to the Vaigai system in east. There is transfer of surplus water of Ravi-Beas to Rajasthan right up to Jaisalmer, Barmer through Indira Gandhi Canal. It virtually eliminated drought conditions in western Rajasthan, transforming the desert wasteland into an agriculturally productive area.

River linking would reduce regional imbalances in different basins. Surplus floodwaters that run down to sea would be fruitfully tapped and also expected to enhance scope for navigation. Huge blocks of hydropower, the most eco-friendly and economic mode of power generation, could also be generated at storage dams. Inter-basin transfer of water will supplement future requirements of cities and villages. The tendency of migration of rural population due to non-developmental activities in their areas would be arrested, since river linking would generate employment.

A long-term database involving glaciologists from within the country and abroad to conduct a detailed study to check climate signals and monitor temporal and spatial variations is needed for the success of the gargantuan project. In-depth studies are necessary on glacier hydrology as the three main rivers--Ganges, Brahmaputra and Indus--relied on glacier resources like snow and ice from the Himalayas. The existing database has to be first studied by an expert team of scientists before creating a new database on the discharge and climate patterns of the glaciers that fed about 80 per cent of the discharge to the rivers.

As population goes up the demand for water will also grow. No State would like to share its water with other States. There is already bitter rivalry among the riparian States. Custodial rights over water have a political dimension. The transfer of water of huge volumes involves surface storage. Right now we have a capacity of 173-bcm in various medium and major irrigation projects. A further capacity of 75.4-bcm will be added by 2025, and another 132-bcm is envisaged by 2050. Even with these projects the total storage capacity in the country is only 381-bcm.

The world over, opinion favours sub-surface storage of water. The Central Ground Water Board in 1996 prepared a National Perspective Plan for utilisation of surplus monsoon run-off for augmentation of ground water. Large volumes can be artificially recharged in the extensive aquifer network. With no overground structures, land acquisition is not required. There are no problems with water logging and salinity, and the rate of evaporation is much less. This water can be stored for decades and irrigation planned accordingly. During drought years, it can be used for drinking purposes. More storage means more water for irrigation.

The currently assessed average potential of all the rivers in India is 1,953 billion cubic meters. Out of this the ultimately utilisable flow is considered to be only 690 billion cubic meters. This is because almost a third of the potential is in the North-Eastern region where no more than 3.5 per cent can be utilised. The National Commission for Integrated Water Resources Development estimated and projected water demand for India by 2050 to be in the range of 973 - 1,100 billion cubic meters. This includes demand for all purposes and takes into account the growth in population as well as better standards of living. It was shown in the report of the Commission that this demand can be fully met from available surface and ground water resources with appropriate measures for development and management. It does not envisage large-scale inter basin transfer.

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