RIVER INTER LINKING – IS IT REALLY A MIRAGE ?K.Periasamy M.Tech ( Chem Engg)

Chennai -97

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Introduction

River Inter Linking scheme in India has a fairly long history. During British era, Sir Arthur Cotton, a

Colonel proposed the linking of major Indian rivers in 1858, and it was not taken up seriously then

since the British gave priority for Railway links. In 1970s, Dr.K.L.Rao, the then Irrigation Minister,

who himself is a water expert proposed the National Water grid for transferring surplus water from

northern rivers to the water deficit areas of south India. During this period many irrigation schemes

involving some Intra-State river link projects were executed, though this Inter - State projects could

not be taken up for financial reasons. In late 1970s, Captain Dastur a pilot, proposed the concept of

Garland canals, one for the Himalayan rivers and the other for the Peninsular rivers. Ultimately, all the

schemes aimed at transferring the surplus water from one region to the other.

In 1980, the then government took a serious initiative and came out with the National Perspective Plan

which proposed the Inter-Basin River water transfers. It set up the National Water Development

Agency( NWDA) in 1982. NWDA took up the study of various links and completed Feasibility Report

( FR) of 30 Links, 16 in Himalayan region and 14 in Peninsular, with one of them as an alternate.

In response to a Public Interest Litigation filed based on the speech by Dr.Abdul Kalam, the then

President of India, the Supreme Court gave a verdict in 2002 that Central Government shall constitute

an Empowered Committee for speedy implementation of the River Inter Link Projects. It set a deadline

of 2016 for completion. The Government appointed an Empowered Committee under the Chairmanship

of Suresh Prabhu, the then Power Minister and studied the various Links. But subsequently nothing

came off.

However, in response to the Supreme Court verdict, there were lot of criticisms on various grounds

like, environmental impact, forest area loss, human displacement, objection by some State

Governments, very high investments, Judicial activism, etc. Due to the visibility of these arguments by

way of high decibel discussions in the generic media, supported by certain NGOs and vested foreign

interests, one tends to think whether the River Inter Liking Projects will ever be implemented in India

or will these projects continue to remain as a mirage !

The lack of serious initiative from the Central Government even after 12 years of this land mark

judgment adds ammunition to these criticisms. Out of the 29 Links, just one Link, Ken-Betwa in

Madhya Pradesh has been cleared for implementation recently after almost 12 years of the judgment.

Just two other Links, Damanganga-Pinjal link and Par-Tapi-Narmada link have been taken up for

preparation of Detailed Project Reports(DPRs).

The Inter Basin River water transfer schemes have been extensively studied over many years by experts

from all discipline from all angles. Not just by Civil engineers and Agricultural experts. They have

decisively concluded that technically it is very much possible to execute these projects with a guarantee

for the required rate of return on investment and with least environmental impact. No one wants to

mislead by saying that there will be no environmental impact.

Let us analyse the pros and cons of these projects in simple terms with an open mind and understand

them in the right perspective. With a clear understanding of the subject let us drive and support the new

Central Government for implementing it in right earnest so that all the Links are completed in 15 to 20

years, if not earlier.

River Inter Linking Projects

The River Inter Linking scheme, alternately called as Inter Basin River Water Transfer scheme, has two

Components : A. Himalayan Component. B. Peninsular Component.

The following are the List of Links finally approved by the National Water Development Authority and

Central Water Commission under these two components.

A. Himalayan Component (Figure- 1) :

1. Kosi – Mechi

2. Kosi – Ghagra

3. Gandak – Ganga

4. Ghagra – Yamuna

5. Sarda – Yamuna

6. Yamuna – Rajasthan

7. Rajasthan – Sabati

8. Chunar – Sone Barrage

9. Sone Dam – Southern Tributaries of

Ganga

10. Brahmaputra – Ganga ( MTSG )

11. Brahmaputra – Ganga ( JTF ) – (Alternate

for 10 )

12. Farraka – Sunderbans

13. Ganga – Damodar – Subernrekha

14. Subernrekha - Mahanathi

B. Peninsular Component (Figure-2) :

1. Mahanadi ( Manibhadra) – Godavari

2. Godavari ( Inchampalli ) – Krishna

(Nagarjunasagar )

3. Godavari ( Inchampalli ) – Krishna

( Nagarjunasagar Tail Pond )

4. Godavari ( Polavaram ) – Krishna

( Vijayawada )

5. Krishna ( Almati ) - Pennar

6. Krishna ( Srisailam ) - Pennar

7. Krishna ( Nagarjunasagar ) –

Pennar ( Somasila )

8. Pennar ( Somasila ) – Cauvery ( Grand

Anaicut )

9. Cauvery ( Kattalai ) – Vaigai - Gundar

10. Ken – Betwa

11. Parbati – Kalisindh – Chambal

12. Par – Tapi – Narmada

13. Damanganga – Pinjal

14. Bedti – Varda

15. Netravati – Hemavati

16. Pamba – Achankoil - Vaipar

These 29 Links were planned when the large Tunnel Boring Machines were not that familiar. Now with

the onset of these machines, these Links can further be split into several Sub-Links connecting the

rivers at appropriate locations depending upon the topography. This has substantial scope for reducing

the human displacement, agricultural land loss, forest area loss, bridge requirements over the road /

rail / existing canals, etc. This kind of new developments will anyway be taken care during the Detailed

Project Report (DPR) stage.

Figure-3 provides an idea of the water surplus and deficit situations in different regions in India.

HIMALAYAN LINKS

Figure-1

PENINSULAR LINKS

Figure – 2

AREAS OF WATER SURPLUS AND DEFICIT

Figure- 3

These projects when implemented will save 200 Billion Cubic Meter ( BCM) or 6000 Thousand

Million Cubic Feet (TMC) of water going waste to sea every year and,

1) Provide irrigation for additional 35 million hectares, leading to additional food grain production

of 90 million tons,

2) Generate net additional 100 Billion units of electricity per year from 30,000 MW of installed

capacity after providing for pumping the water in certain regions.

3) Provide 12 Billion Cubic Meter ( BCM ) of drinking and industrial water.

4) Mitigate flooding in several districts.

5) Reduce hardships associated with frequent Drought in many States.

6) Provide clean drinking water to several crores of people and reduce incidence of diseases like

diarrhea, kidney stone, gastric problems, etc associated with use of bore well water, polluted

water, etc.

7) Reduce migration of people to long distance cities by way of increased economic development

in the rural neighbourhood.

Apart from these major benefits there are many other benefits like inland navigation, air pollution

control by way of reduced dryland, water pollution, inland fisheries, animal husbandary, etc.

The benefits accruing from each Link is given in Table-1.

Table -1

Linkwise Benefits

Now let us analyse the perceived negative aspects of these projects in detail.

Land Requirement

The estimated Forest Land required, Total land required and the number of people expected to be

displaced are given in Table -2. Please note that these Canals will be about 100 -150 m wide only as

against even a KM wide ( 1000 m) in case of rivers. In fact, with the advent of large Tunnel Boring

Machines (as large as 60 feet dia) the proportion of open canals can be substantially reduced, thereby

minimizing human displacement to a great extent. Moreover, we can have more number of Links with

multiple Tunnels originating at several small dams, instead of single large open Canals originating from

large dams. Use of Tunnel Boring machines in selected locations needs to be analysed from various

aspects like saving in net total submergence, human displacement, environmental impacts, cost-benefit

analysis, etc.

For example, in Andhra Pradesh two Tunnels of 38 Feet Dia are under construction for transferring

about 36 TMC or 1.2 BCM of water across Amrabad plateau running beneath the Nagarjuna Sagar

Tiger Reserve Forest for a distance of 19 KM. This is done without disturbing even a single square feet

of forest land.

Land requirement for the proposed dams is inevitable. It is estimated to be about 7,65,000 hectares for

all the 29 Links. Compare this with that of the 3,50,00,000 hectares of land to be irrigated. The area that

will be irrigated is about 46 times of the area being submerged. Please note, this 7,65,000 hectares will

not always be submerged. There will be vegetation in the upper reaches of the dams whenever these

dams are not full.

Human Displacement

When all these projects are implemented, about 1.4 million people are expected to be displaced. Human

displacement is not anything new in the history of mankind. In India, annually average of about 2

Million people migrate from villages to towns, from towns to cities and from India to abroad. This

migration happens in a haphazard manner and we are forced to handle a host of complex social and

economic issues. Compared to this, the displacement of 1.4 million people due to these 29 projects is

nothing. Moreover, this displacement is expected to happen in a planned manner with direct

government intervention over a period of 2 to 3 decades.

Further, these Projects will reduce the long distance migrations to a great extent owing to the improved

economic activity that will take place in rural areas. We need to take credit for this aspect while

considering the human displacement due to these projects. This also has associated environmental

benefits by way of lesser transport requirements of people and resources over long distances.

Table - 2Land Required and Human Displacement due to

Dams and Link Canals of Proposed Links 

Forest Land required, ha

Total Land required, ha

Estimated number of people who may be

displaced

Himalayan Dams 4 300 162 304 245 079

Himalayan Link Canals 16 758 99 315 311 849

Peninsular Dams 73 646 404 843 611 313

Peninsular Link Canals 9 165 99 046 311 004

Total 103 869 765 508 1 479 245

Negative Environmental Impacts

The following are the important negative environmental impacts that are likely to happen when this

River Inter Linking scheme is implemented.

1. Loss of flora(plants) and fauna(animal life).

2. Loss of Biodiversity

3. Loss of part of the sediments carried by rivers to delta.

4. Possible increase in salinity of irrigated land.

5. Possible water logging in certain areas.

For sure, these are impacts which can be expected. But the quantum of these impacts are not anything

which will adversely affect the nature in any significant manner that it will pose grave environmental

danger as perceived and threatened by a few NGOs. Let us understand these aspects in detail.

1. Loss of flora and fauna : This happens when we build dams and the water gets filled up

submerging the land upstream of the dams. Most of the animal life will survive by moving to

upper reaches as the dams get filled up. Only the smaller insects and microbes which can not

move up will be lost. The entire flora present in the submerged area will be lost.

The loss of these smaller insects, microbes and the flora anyway is not anything that happens

only due to the construction of dams. Since the dams are built mostly in the low lying areas

only, these areas are anyway subjected to flooding and inundation, now and then leading to

disturbances to flora and fauna. Only difference is that it will happen at some higher elevations

also when the dams are built.

The arguments of extinction of certain flora and fauna due to dams are not tenable. It is not that

those will exist only in the particular elevation and in that particular location. Even if it is so,

anyway those will be lost due to annual flooding in normal course even without the dams.

As for the loss of certain flora and loss of important fauna like tigers, lions, etc, we can very

well compensate by creating additional forest area and creating alternate habitats.

The impact due to canals are of much lower proportions as the land area required does not fall

in sensitive areas like forests or hills.

Hence, we shall be aware that though there will be some impact on the flora and fauna due to

these projects, it is not as bad as we are made to believe with superlative proportions.

2. Loss of Biodiversity : It is expected to happen for two reasons. One is due to loss of certain

flora and fauna which are specific to the locations where the dams / canals are built. The second

is the loss of biodiversity associated with the change in cropping pattern due to canal irrigation.

As explained above, the first one, loss due to dams / canals is not much, since anyway those

areas are subjected to submergence in certain periods of the year and the dams only prolong that

The second one, yes it will happen. The coarse cereals like millets, jowar, etc will give way for

the high productive rice / wheat crops. This is inevitable. But we must understand that change of

biodiversity is a dynamic one. Did we have all the crops that we have today in India about 1000

years back ? In the same way we can not guarantee that these crops / animals will continue to

live after 1000 years. But we want to ensure that the human beings survive. This is survival of

the fittest. This is part and parcel of nature.

But, we must note one important aspect. The advocates of these dams and canals have always

been advocating population control also in India, so that the need for these dams and canals are

minimized. But, we can never find any of these NGOs and “experts” who oppose the

development activities advocating population control. On the other hand, they will be making

loose statements like even after 60 years of Independence we do not have water, we do not have

power, we do not have sufficient food, etc ! We must understand the immaturity of these people

and ignore them.

3. Loss of sediments carried by rivers to delta : Yes, there will be some settling of the sediments in

the dams. But, is it not a benefit ? If the rivers are allowed continue to carry millions of tons of

silt from the upstream areas and dump it in the delta year after year, is it not posing a major

environmental hazard ? If the silt continues to get deposited in the delta region, will it not alter

the ecology of the delta ? Will it not alter the course of the rivers / canals in the delta ? In fact, it

is one of the reasons for flooding of delta regions leading to damages to crops and humans.

What is important to note here is that, we talk of human and crop loss only. What about loss of

flora and fauna due to these floods every year ?

The dams ameliorate the situation to some extent by allowing part of the silt to settle in the dam

which is closer to the place where it is generated compared to the delta. Moreover, further

erosion is substantially reduced due to the controlled flow taking place from the dams. The

rivers are made to flow within the already established flow paths, well within their boundaries.

Hence, we must look at dams as a positive factor as for as silt is concerned.

4. Possible increase in salinity of irrigated land : Over a period of time, the salts carried by the

canals originating from the dams may create salinity in the irrigated land. This depends upon the

origin of the rivers and the soil property enroute.

One must understand that this will happen whether we use the water through canals originating

from the dams or we directly use the river water in delta regions ! In fact, with dams we get

partial settlement of silt thereby minimizing the salinity issue.

Moreover, we have simple agricultural technologies for controlling the salinity on an yearly

basis with proper soil testing.

5. Possible water logging in certain areas : This is simply an exaggerated matter based on

situations prevailing in a very narrow region in Punjab. As can be seen from Figure-4, the south

western region of Punjab has water logging, ie water table is within 2 m ( 6.6 Feet). The area is

about 2 lakh hectares. The total cropped area of Punjab is 18 lakh hectares. It works out to about

10%. Is it really a big issue ? Is it really a non-solvable problem ? Please note, Punjab has one

of the highest canal network(14500 km) with about 98% of the cropped area under irrigation !

Can we ever dream of this situation for the rest of the country ?

WATER LOGGING IN PUNJAB

Figure - 4

It has happened in Punjab because of the lack of awareness among the people and the

indifferent attitude of the officials concerned. If we regulate the canal water and ground water

pumping, this will automatically get solved and it is already being done. Citing this as a reason

for not creating additional irrigation facilities in rest of the places in India is ridiculous !

Positive Environmental Impacts

With regard to the environmental impact, there is a complete misunderstanding among the

environmental activists. They perceive that any human activity can only lead to destruction of

environment. They don’t want to look at the positive impacts of various development activities

initiated by the planners. For example, if a Dam is built, they look at only the one time submergence of

few thousand acres and the associated environmental impacts. But, they fail to appreciate the

submergence of several thousand acres due to flooding that is taking place year after year in the

absence of these dams and associated canals.

PEAK FLOW REDUCTION BY DAMS

Figure -4

Figure-4 depicts how the dams minimize the peak flow in rivers thereby reducing the flooding. It has

been estimated that the peak flow will be reduced by about 30% in the Himalyan rivers. This reduction

in flooding brings substantial benefits in terms of environmental impacts apart from the obvious

benefits in terms of reduction in human losses, year after year. It is worth highlighting here that, very

often the people who oppose this project take the example of Ganga which has peak flow of about

50,000 M3/ Sec across Farakka Barrage and a diversion of 1400 M3/Sec upstream of Farakka Barrage

is planned. They argue that this minor diversion(2.8%) is not going to benefit flooding in any

significant manner. What they fail to understand are that 1) The peak flow reduction is not by diversion

and it is mainly by storage during the peak flow periods 2) Ganga is not the only river which is flooding

and there are many other flooding rivers from where the diversion percentage are higher than this

example, apart from the storage.

Also, it is interesting to note that, without understanding the inevitability of the release of excess water

once the dams get filled up, some of these NGOs blame the dams itself for the flooding ! Further, they

are so much ignorant that they are not able to understand the fact that the peak flow caused by the

excess flow coming after the dam is filled is much lower and the flooding impact will also be naturally

much lower compared to that without the dam.

Some other “experts” associated with the NGOs calculate the total flow taking place in a particular year

and say that the dams save and Link canals divert only a small percentage of the total flow and hence,

their flood mitigation potential is nothing ! See the fallacy of their argument ! The flooding is due to the

peak flow taking place in short periods during the monsoon time. The dams capture this peak flow and

save the downstream areas from flooding. Even if we buy their argument, it only reinforces the need for

creating more capacity in the reservoirs !

Further, the environmental benefits that will accrue by way of Drought prevention by these Dams and

Inter Linking Canals are overlooked.

Power Requirement

There is a misconception that we need lot of power to pump the water from Himalayas across the

Vindhyas. This is absolutely wrong. As can be seen from Table-2, power is required mainly for two

Links: Godavari(Inchampally) - Krishna and Ganga- Subarnarekha. In all other Links, fortunately the

terrain is such it flows by gravity and we have hydel power generation potential. There is potential for

30,000 MW of installed capacity. There will be net electricity generation of about 100 Bn Units after

deducting the pumping requirement. Why we should worry about the pumping power requirement in

few locations as long as we get a net surplus ? What is more, this hydel power is available during

summer when we really need it more. There is another advantage for hydel power. It can be started and

stopped in short notice. Hence it can be used for meeting the peak load demands. Hydel power is as

renewable and clean as that of solar. In fact, these power projects are much better in terms of

availability, storage possibility, multiple usage of the projects, etc.

Need for Huge Water Storage Capacity

Due to the geography and topography of India, we get non uniform rainfall over space and time. India

receives an annual average rainfall of 1100 mm resulting in total precipitation of 4000 Billion Cubic Meter

(BCM). About 75% of this precipitation occurs within 4 months in just about 40% of the land area. This uneven

rainfall is further aggravated by the uneven spread in surface water availability due to the topography. About

60% of the total surface water is available in Ganga and Brahmaputra Basins alone. All the 400 BCM of surface

water received across the International borders is also received in this region only. Only the balance is available

for the rest of the Country. This leaves most part of the Central, Western and Southern Regions always under

water scarcity with frequent droughts. The topography is such, at times we have flooding in some districts even

while the neigbhouring districts have Drought. The loss of flora and fauna due to these droughts are as important

as that lost during the flooding.

Obviously, this calls for the storage of the rain water, the nature’s gift, whenever and wherever it is available in

excess for using it whenever and wherever it is in shortage. The human civilizations have been practicing this

concept for thousands of years across the globe. It is not anything new that Indians alone want to do it now.

Though we have an average precipitation of about 4000 Km3 ( 4000 BCM) per year, our storage capacity is just

314 Km3, with 174 Km3 from large dams and the balance from other storages. This translates into 3300 m3 of

rainfall and 262 m3 of storage on per capita basis. This storage is one of the lowest in the world. Compare this

263 m3 per capita Indian storage with that of China at 2486 m3, North America at 6150 m3, Brazil at 3255 m3,

South Africa at 746 m3 as of 2002.

The storage capacity of all our Dams put together is 174 Km3. Whereas, the storage capacity of just one Dam

across Zambezi river at Kariba in Zambia / Zimbabwe border is 180 Km3 ! Aswan dam in Egypt has a capacity

of 169 Km3. Three Gorges Dam in China has a capacity of 39 Km3. The Indira Sagar dam, the largest dam in

India, has a capacity of just 12.2 Km3. Sardar Sarovar Dam capacity is 5.8 Km3. The capacity of Mettur dam is

just 2.64 Km3. We can imagine what is the capacity of our other dams !

Due to this meager storage capacity in India, the peak flows that take place during the few weeks of monsoon

time in each year, results in flooding. This leads to discharge of huge quantities of water into the sea through a

few rivers like Brahmaputra, Ganga, Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, some small rivers of Kerala, etc.

Some people come out with abstract statements like Watershed Management, Small check dams, Barrages,

Rainwater harvesting, etc whenever the river inter linking projects are discussed. Obviously, they do not know

that we are talking about Billions of cubic meters of water flowing in certain regions in short periods, and these

regions have such topographies that small check dams are not feasible and the concepts like Watershed

management, rainwater harvest, etc are totally irrelevant here. At the maximum these can supplement the dam

storages in a small way and these can never be alternatives for the 29 Inter Basin transfer schemes.

Hence, we desperately need to build more dams and canals to store the rain water and use it effectively. It is

simple common sense that any resource that is available only during certain period of the year in certain regions

only, needs to be stored and used during the rest of the year in rest of the areas. This is part and parcel of natural

activity. Mother earth will not find fault with us for this, especially for a resource like water, which is crucial for

the existence of life on earth.

Project Cost

The total cost for all the 29 Links has been estimated at Rs.5,60,000 crores at 2002-03 prices. Of

course, now the cost is higher to the extent of inflation in the past 12 years. It works out to about

Rs.12,00,000 crores at current (2104) prices. This Rs.5,60,000 includes about Rs.1,50,000 Crores for

the associated power projects. This includes a contingency of Rs.1,05,000 crores. We must keep in

mind that this estimate has been made over a period of many years for different links and these have

been normalized with a year on year cost escalation factor of 10% upto 2002-03. This escalation factor

of 10% is very much on the higher side. With the result, this total cost of Rs.5,60,000 crores is a highly

pessimistic estimate and it will surely take care of unexpected cost over runs.

Many consider this as a single project involving an outlay of Rs.12,00,000 crores. They also think that

all the Links need to be executed simultaneously. This is one of the reasons for them to oppose this

scheme on the grounds: 1.Where do we go for such a big sum ?, 2. Whether it will not cause ecological

damage in a big way ? Actually, these are totally independent projects spread across a vast area. It is

not about diverting all the water from one river basin to another river basin. We are only taking a part

of the water going waste in one river basin for utilizing it in between the two adjacent river basins, with

only the surplus water being transferred to the next basin. In most cases, the beneficiary basins fall

within the same States. So, the fear of large scale ecological damages are only perception based, and

are not based on any scientific studies.

We can execute these projects in phases as and when we have funds. When we can get Rs.2,50,000

crores for Under Ground Metros in 22 Cities, can we not get Rs.12,00,000 crores for this National

project ? When we are ready to spend Rs.1,50,000 crores for getting about 26 Billion units from 20,000

MW of Solar power, should we not spend the amount to get about 100 Billion units from the 30,000

MW of hydro power projects associated with these River Link projects ?

Objections by State Governments

As for the objection by some States, it is a well known fact that, the States which are having surplus

water do not want to admit it and they do not want to share it, even if it goes waste to the Sea. Many

people cite this as a reason for not executing the project. It is a childish argument. This happens even

within the States, within districts, within villages, within homes ! Can we keep quite ? In fact, the

Supreme Court has asked the Central Government to mainly deal with this aspect.  

For example, Andhra and Odhisa have not agreed to the data on water surpluses in Mahanadi and

Godavari. It does not mean that there is no surplus water in these rivers. We see it year after year

during the monsoon periods and we keep paying for flood reliefs to Odhisa and Andhra. Also, just

because these State Governments took negative stands on these projects in earlier years, it does not

mean that they will never see reason and accept the benefits that will accrue to their own States, apart

from the neigbhouring States. After all, wisdom has to prevail some day or the other.

Then, there are talks about Kerala’s objection to Pamba-Achankoil-Vaipar Links. Yes, it is true. Kerala

opposes anything and everything new inside Kerala. But they enjoy the water and electricity being

provided by the dams built by earlier governments. They do not permit coal / nuclear power plants

inside Kerala. But they enjoy the electricity supplied from these power plants located in neighboring

States ! How long this can go on ? Some day, the young minds of Kerala will prevail over the old, and

that day, those Links in Kerala will be feasible. But the moot point here is that, should the rest of the

country wait till those young minds to revolt and bulldoze those old guards ? The Supreme Court and

the Engineers like us, in their wisdom prefer not to wait. It is upto the Nation to decide.

Should the Central government decide to take these projects forward in an easy route, it can consider

royalty payments for the water transferred, like for any other natural resource. As long as we are

convinced of the overall benefits for our people, we should not worry about who gains more and who

gains less. We can not also keep quiet based on past failures. If the people concerned are not convinced

by all scientific data, and do not want to abide by the give and take policy, which is the corner stone of

any democracy, then we shall not hesitate to enforce the law of the land. If need be, we can bring in

suitable Constitutional Amendments. That is what is the crux of the Supreme Court judgment. 

Indian Experiences

Beas- Sutlej Link, Kurnool-Cuddapah Canal, Rajasthan Canal which takes water from Sutlej & Beas

rivers, Periyar Project, Parambikulam-Aliyar project, etc with supporting dams and canals are all

examples of successful links. There are about 5200 large dams (with dam height above 15m) with

associated canals irrigating about 108 Million hectares. Some of the dams are in existence for more

than 100 years. Without these dams and canals, India could not have fed the 120 crores people today.

Without additional water we can not feed the additional 20 crores people expected to add up in the next

few decades. If we are to talk about “environmental damages” of about 500 large dams proposed in the

Inter Link canals, we need to dismantle these 5200 dams as well.

International experiences

In Canada, about 285 BCM of water is transferred between river basins. In USA, about 45 BCM is

transferred already and there are projects under way which will transfer about 376 BCM. China has a

project for transferring 45 BCM through Eastern, Central and Western canals. The Indian scheme is

expected to transfer about 200 BCM of water.

These Inter link projects may look as stupendous tasks for old people who have no knowledge of

modern developments. Look at Three Gorges Dam built by Chinese. It was planned in 1919 and was

finally completed in 2008. It is an engineering marvel. Yes, it has displaced 1.3 million people. Still

they did it for the betterment of the masses. It is producing 22,000 MW of power and it is providing

additional irrigation for about 5,75,000 Hectares. Compare this project with that of our River Inter

Link projects which are expected to displace only about 1.4 Million people, but irrigate about

3,00,00,000 Hectares !

Population the deciding factor

All Indians must understand a very important aspect with respect to population which is unique to

India. It is not just the second largest total population. It is more than that. India has the combination of

the following three important demographic factors :

1. Very high total population of 125 crores, next to China which has about 135 crores.

2. Very high population density of 382 per Sq KM compared to just 143 of China and 34 of USA.

3. Near uniform spread across the country with just a few exceptional areas like Thar desert and

Chambal valley.

This demographic combination demands wide spread development keeping the people close to

wherever they are unlike other counties, which try to bring all the people to few cities thereby

providing common facilities at a cheaper price with better scale of operation. Since we have high

population density, we will get the scale of operation at the Town levels itself. Hence, we must plan for

our urbanization with a broader spread across several thousand towns and not within the 300 and odd

cities.

This demands providing water throughout India as much spread out as possible. This is an important

and decisive reason for building more dams to store water and utilize it across the country for the

betterment of our teaming millions.

India is unique and it obviously demands unique solutions for our problems. We can not compare with

any nation for any issue and devise methodologies similar to theirs. If Europeans are not building many

dams, it is because they have enough food and they have declining population. Is it the case with

India ? We can not satisfy the transport needs with personal vehicles like two wheelers and cars which

many other countries do, which unfortunately India is also copying. We need Buses and Trains in

plenty. We do not want few bullet trains at exorbitant cost, but we need all trains to run at atleast 160

KMPH. We can not rely on Solar power which is available only during day time when we do not need

it much. Whereas, solar power suits Germans because they need more electricity exactly when sun

shines more.

Hence, let us abhor ideas of experts and preachers from other countries who have knowledge and data

completely different from our ground realities. Their ideas and solutions in most cases will be irrelevant

for our needs. Let us take only capital from them and not ideas and policies.

Conclusion

The River Inter Link Projects are technically feasible, economically viable and environmentally benign.

There are only two impediments. One is the Political will of the Central Government and the other is

the Co-operation of State Governments. 

Rive Inter Linking Projects could be misleading as a mirage for those who do not want to travel that

extra mile to see that it is in deed real water, and not a mirage. Old people might have experienced that

mirage in the past since this project is being talked about for so many years with nothing tangible

coming of. They do not realize the fact (or they do not have the stamina of mind to travel that extra

mile) that, with the new faces coming to the helm of affairs, we can see to that it is really water, and not

mirage ! The media must realize this and spread a positive message on important national projects like

this. They shall not sing the same old negative songs and mislead the nation.

 

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