The Interlinking of Indian Rivers: Some Questions on the Scientific, Economic and Environmental Dimensions of the Proposal by Jayanta Bandyopadhyay and Shama Perveen email:
[email protected] Centre for Development and Environment Policy Indian Institute of Management Calcutta Occasional Paper No 60 SOAS Water Issues Study Group School of Oriental and African Studies/King’s College London University of London June 2003 Paper presented at Seminar on Interlinking Indian Rivers: Bane or Boon? at IISWBM, Kolkata 17 June 2003 ABSTRACT The spatial and temporal variations in the rainfall over India has led to denotation of water ‘surplus’ and water scarce river basins in the country. The project for interlinking the rivers in India aims at transferring water from water ‘surplus’ to the water scarce basins. The paper questions the prevailing reductionist concept of ‘surplus’ flows in some river basins – irrespective of its diverse ecological needs and of its diversion to water scarce regions. In the background of this debate, the paper touches on the fact that though the interlinking proposal has been made to reduce the water scarcity in the rain scarce areas of western and southern parts of India, the choice of this gigantic project as the appropriate mechanism to achieve that goal is questioned. The paper further questions the justifiability of the assumption of an arithmetic expansion in irrigated land as the only possible solution towards maintaining India’s food security. Enquiring further into the logic behind the proposal that has formidable cost involvement, the authors are of the opinion that the proposal claims to package an uncertain and questionable idea as a desirable one.