Mismanagement of water has made the rivers of India a curse
Consider Gujarat and Orissa. These two states being in the two ends of India’s geography have quite a bit in common. Half the year, both these states are in the news for their perennial droughts, while in the remaining half, they are in the news for floods. This means that while for half the year both these states suffer from an acute shortage of water, in the remaining half the crisis is due to an over abundance of the same. In both the cases, while millions suffer and many of them face eventual death due to starvation, disease or out of the sheer trauma of losing everything they ever had, the almost 'auto-response' blame game over the delay in the release of aid, aerial surveys by the powers that be and siphoning of crucial aid money by middlemen continues unabated. In the midst of all this pandemonium, and also blaming the weather gods, added to temporary improvement of conditions, what takes a backseat is any long term approach to deal with this menace once and for all. Its not only Gujarat or Orissa but most of the India's states including the likes of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and even Rajasthan nowadays have the same problem of inundation during one quarter of every year. Yet, no one realises that the real problem is water management. Strangely enough, it has often been witnessed that when one part of the country is facing severe drought, another part is facing floods, and yet, 60 years after independence there is yet to be a pan-India programme for river water management.The ambitious river linking project of the NDA has been put in cold storage by the present UPA regime, but given the increasing problems of floods – which can only be compounded in the future thanks to the increasing menace of global warming – the concept of linking rivers to redistribute water needs to be given a relook. A report, "Strategic Analyses of India’s National River Linking Project", by the International Water Management Institute states: "The Project will cost US $120 billion to link 37 Himalayan and peninsular rivers. Doing this will form a gigantic South Asian water grid, which will handle 178 kms of inter-basin water transfer/year, build 12,500 kms of canals, generate 35 gigawatts of hydro-power and add 35 million hectares to India’s irrigated areas." It adds that "the answer to the drought-proneness of western and peninsular India lies in the flood-proneness of the east, and vice versa". River linking is not a new concept. The report itself states: "In the 19th Century, Sir Arthur Cotton, the first chief engineer of Madras Presidency, had thought of a plan to link rivers in Southern India for inland navigation."
Unfortunately for India, development politics prefers to pursue only those projects which have more visibility of development rather than intrinsic development. A flyover, thus, would always get more mileage than river linking or dredging of rivers that might take decades to fructify and people might never express their appreciation in ballots. The National Highway Development Programme has shown how good roads can bring a paradigm shift in India's development.It's time to pursue the river linking project with similar vigour, if India has to relieve its people from the perennial curse of water shortage and ironically, its overabundance alternately.
Pathikrit Payne
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
Read these article :-
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
1500-plus IIPM students placed across the country with 44 bagging international offers
IIPM set to beat economic slowdown
IIPM, GURGAON
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
» IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
Consider Gujarat and Orissa. These two states being in the two ends of India’s geography have quite a bit in common. Half the year, both these states are in the news for their perennial droughts, while in the remaining half, they are in the news for floods. This means that while for half the year both these states suffer from an acute shortage of water, in the remaining half the crisis is due to an over abundance of the same. In both the cases, while millions suffer and many of them face eventual death due to starvation, disease or out of the sheer trauma of losing everything they ever had, the almost 'auto-response' blame game over the delay in the release of aid, aerial surveys by the powers that be and siphoning of crucial aid money by middlemen continues unabated. In the midst of all this pandemonium, and also blaming the weather gods, added to temporary improvement of conditions, what takes a backseat is any long term approach to deal with this menace once and for all. Its not only Gujarat or Orissa but most of the India's states including the likes of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and even Rajasthan nowadays have the same problem of inundation during one quarter of every year. Yet, no one realises that the real problem is water management. Strangely enough, it has often been witnessed that when one part of the country is facing severe drought, another part is facing floods, and yet, 60 years after independence there is yet to be a pan-India programme for river water management.The ambitious river linking project of the NDA has been put in cold storage by the present UPA regime, but given the increasing problems of floods – which can only be compounded in the future thanks to the increasing menace of global warming – the concept of linking rivers to redistribute water needs to be given a relook. A report, "Strategic Analyses of India’s National River Linking Project", by the International Water Management Institute states: "The Project will cost US $120 billion to link 37 Himalayan and peninsular rivers. Doing this will form a gigantic South Asian water grid, which will handle 178 kms of inter-basin water transfer/year, build 12,500 kms of canals, generate 35 gigawatts of hydro-power and add 35 million hectares to India’s irrigated areas." It adds that "the answer to the drought-proneness of western and peninsular India lies in the flood-proneness of the east, and vice versa". River linking is not a new concept. The report itself states: "In the 19th Century, Sir Arthur Cotton, the first chief engineer of Madras Presidency, had thought of a plan to link rivers in Southern India for inland navigation."Unfortunately for India, development politics prefers to pursue only those projects which have more visibility of development rather than intrinsic development. A flyover, thus, would always get more mileage than river linking or dredging of rivers that might take decades to fructify and people might never express their appreciation in ballots. The National Highway Development Programme has shown how good roads can bring a paradigm shift in India's development.It's time to pursue the river linking project with similar vigour, if India has to relieve its people from the perennial curse of water shortage and ironically, its overabundance alternately.
Pathikrit Payne
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
Read these article :-
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
1500-plus IIPM students placed across the country with 44 bagging international offers
IIPM set to beat economic slowdown
IIPM, GURGAON
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
» IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
No comments:
Post a Comment