Indian Rivers Inter-link

The Indian Rivers Inter-link is a large-scale civil engineering project that aims to join the majority of India's rivers by canals and so reduce persistent water shortages in parts of India.

History

Plans for parts of the Indian Rivers Inter-link were mooted in the British period.Fact|date=July 2008 In 1972 the then Minister for Irrigation K. L. Rao proposed a 2640 kilometer long link between the Ganges and Cauvery rivers. In 1974 plans were proposed for the Garland canal. In 1982 the National Water Development Agency was set up to carry out surveys of the links and prepare feasibility studies.

The Project

The Inter-link would consist of two parts, a northern Himalayan River Development component and a southern Peninsular River Development component.

Himalayan development

The northern component would consist of a series of dams built along the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers in India, Nepal and Bhutan for the purposes of storage. Canals would be built to transfer surplus water from the eastern tributaries of the Ganges to the west. The Brahmaputra and its tributaries would be linked with the Ganges and the Ganges with the Mahanadi river. This part of the project would provide additional irrigation for about 220,000 square kilometres and generate about 30 gigawatts of electricity. In theory it would provide extra flood control in the Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins. It could also provide excess water for the controversial Farakka Barrage which could be used to flush out the silt at the port of Calcutta.

Peninsular development

The main part of the project would send water from the eastern part of India to the south and west. The southern development project would consist of four main parts. First, the Mahanadi, Godavari. Krishna and Cauvery rivers would all be linked by canals. Extra water storage dams would be built along the course of these rivers. The purpose of this would be to transfer surplus water from the Mahanadi and Godavari rivers to the south of India. Second, those rivers that flow west to the north of Bombay and the south of Tapi would be linked. Due to the irregular fluctuations in water levels in the region, as much storage capacity would be built as possible. The water would be used by the urban areas of Bombay and also to provide irrigation in the coastal areas of Maharashtra. Third the Ken and Chambal rivers would be linked in order to provide better water facilities for Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Finally a number of west-flowing rivers along the Western Ghats simply discharge into the Arabian Sea. As many of these as possible would be diverted for irrigation purposes. The Peninsular part of the project would provide additional irrigation to 130,000 square kilometres and generation an additional 4 gigawatts of power.

Criticism

Critics of the Inter-link scheme have alleged that the environmental impact of these projects would be extreme. They point out that little water is genuinely "surplus" or wasted merely because it runs into the sea. Diverting water from so many rivers would have a serious impact on the mangroves of the coastal regions and hence on fish stocks, that extra irrigation will cause salt levels to rise and that the project will take precious, and disputed, water from Bangladesh causing India international problems. Critics also point to the enormous costs conservatively estimated at some 115 billion American dollars which India can ill-afford. It has also been suggested that the program is a vast vote-buying exercise on the part of sections of the Indian political establishment.

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3050485.stm BBC report on the Project]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3148355.stm BBC Report on Bangladeshi objections]
* [http://www.acdis.uiuc.edu/Research/OPs/Shukla-Asthana/Shukla-AsthanaOP.pdf "Anatomy of Interlinking Rivers in India: A Decision in Doubt", paper by A.C. Shukla and Vandana Asthana]