Competing Demand for Water in Tamil Nadu: Urbanisation, Industrialisation and Environmental Damages in the Bhavani and Noyyal Basins (1880s-2000s) Velayutham Saravanan* Abstract This article attempts to analyse, in a historical perspective (1881-2002), the emergence of competing demand for water caused by the diversion of river basin water to meet the demand of the urban domestic use and industrial needs and its consequential damage to the ecology and environment, which further aggravated the problem, in the Bhavani and Noyyal river basins of Tamil Nadu. It examines the diversion of water for the domestic and industrial sectors that caused a great threat to the ecology, environment and health of the people and to the flora and fauna of these regions, which further aggravated the competing demand situation leading to 'water market' in the basin areas. Further, it also analyses the role of the state, how it further motivated the competing demand for water, thereby neglecting the ecology and environment of these river basins. On the one hand, it provides water to the pollution- causing industries by diverting water from the river basins, where there is already an acute scarcity of water. On the other hand, the diverted water is getting polluted due to the ineffective pollution control measures of the state, further aggravating the situation for competing demand for water and worsening the environmental conditions in the river basins. In short, this article examines the proliferation factors for water demand creating competition in the basin areas and the consequence of environmental damages that not only created 'water market' but also posed great threat to the ecology, environment and people in the Bhavani and Noyyal river basins of Tamil Nadu since the late 19th century up till the early years of the 21st century (1881-2002). * Professor, Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies (CJNS), Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), New Delhi - 100 025, Email: [email protected] This article is based on the report, Local Strategies for Water Supply and Conservation Management, submitted to the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada, in December 1999. I thank Prof Paul Appasamy for his comments and encouragement. I thank anonymous referees of this Journal for their valuable and critical comments, which helped enrich the paper. However, the usual disclaimers do apply. 200 Journal of Social and Economic Development July - Dec. 2007 The Problem Sustainable development is defined as meeting ‘the (human) needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987:8). This concept implies that there is a limit on environmental resources and the ability of the biosphere to absorb human activities. These limits are seen to have roots in technological inadequacies and inequitable social organisation. Thus, sustainable development must entail a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development, and institutional changes are made consistent to meet the future as well as the present needs (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987: 9). In recent years, sustainable resource use has been emphasised invariably in the developed and the developing countries alike. It is believed that the sustainability can be ensured through the market mechanism. The role of market is the exchange of commodities (goods, services or resources) between producers/ sellers and consumers/buyers within a specific geographic area during a given period of time. But the market mechanism has failed to ensure the sustainability of the resources. It is because the benefit of production or consumption is not included in the market price -- neither in the supply price nor in the demand price. In other words, the market is not taking into account the transaction cost while determining the cost or benefit of the goods. This spillover effect produces the externalities in the economic system. The entire process is known as market failure. For example, dyeing and bleaching industries use a large quantity of water and discharge almost the same amount into the Noyyal and other public places. This effluent discharge affects the ecology and environment in these geographical regions. Neither the producers nor the consumers meet the cost of the damages caused to the ecology and environment. The basic theory of environmental policy defines pollution ‘as a public “bad” that results from “waste discharges” associated with the production of private goods’ (Cropper and Oates 1992:678). To control the pollution and protect the scarce resources, the theory stipulates imposing numerous taxes. Based on the theories, the state has imposed several restrictions by several laws and taxes. However, the state intervention has proved to be ineffective. The failure of the market led to a great threat to the ecology and environment of the basins and created scarcity of water as well as competing demand for it among different sectors. To meet the increasing as well as competing demand, water was diverted from the river basins and this has aggravated and extended the problem to the entire Bhavani and Noyyal river basins. Competing demand for water among the different stakeholders led to water conflicts within the basin, between the basins of the state and between the states Vol. 9 No.2 Saravanan: Competing Demand for Water in Tamil Nadu 201 and countries (Saravanan 2001). In the Bhavani basin, water conflicts existed among the farmers (Saravanan 2001). Conflicts emerged between the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to share the water resources.1 Because, if the east flowing rivers are diverted towards the west, it ‘will severely affect human communities dependent upon Bhavani all the way down to the Lower Bhavani dam and in a less drastic way further downstream in the Cauvery basin’ (Satish Chandran Nair 2002)2. Recently, when Tirupur Exporters Association planned to divert water from the confluence of the Cauvery, the people of Erode, who were already facing an acute shortage of drinking water, opposed it. In this context, this article attempts to analyse the competing demand for water that has arisen owing to factors like urbanisation, industrialisation and environmental damages in the Bhavani and Noyyal river basins of Tamil Nadu from the 1880s till the early 2000s in a historical perspective. In this article, an attempt is made to analyse the various demand factors, viz., population, in-migration, industrial growth etc, that have led to increased water requirements during the study period. Drinking water problem had emerged in Coimbatore towards the end of the 19th century (Saravanan 1998a). Water supplying schemes were initiated during the first quarter of the 20th century (Saravanan 1998a, Saravanan and Appasamy 1999). Tirupur, on the other hand, grew rapidly only in the second half of the 20th century and started consuming water not only for domestic purposes but also for a large number of upcoming bleaching and dyeing industrial units. According to the South Indian Hosiery Manufactures Association (SIHMA) Bulletin, 750 dyeing and bleaching units existed in 1998. The ever-growing water demand in the two cities was due to the increasing population, caused by in-migration of people seeking employment opportunities and other business activities, as well as the residential and institutional developments. During the 20th century, different kinds of industries and several infrastructural facilities were developed in Coimbatore and Tirupur cities. Consequently, the population has increased as a large number of people from different villages of the district, and from neighbouring districts and states migrated seeking employment in the industries and commercial activities. The rapidly growing water demand has produced a ‘water market’ for industrial water in Tirupur and for drinking water in the suburban areas of Coimbatore. With the increasing demand, water from the neighbouring Bhavani basin has been diverted to both Coimbatore and Tirupur, since local sources were inadequate to meet the demand. The latest proposal is a joint sector scheme to divert water from the confluence point of the Bhavani and the Cauvery to meet the industrial and drinking water demands in Tirupur, which is growing rapidly along with the hosiery industry. On the one hand, the increase in population and development led to a sharp rise in demand for water in the domestic, industrial and agricultural sectors, and, on the other hand, with the increase in demand, the water is being polluted -- 202 Journal of Social and Economic Development July - Dec. 2007 both the ground and surface water. This aggravates the water demand further. Historically, increasing water demand has been met through diversion of water from other places. However, new sources of water are unviable due to the non-availability of the surplus water. There have been several studies focusing on labour markets, changing labour relations, cheapening of labour, feminisation of labour, and child labour problems in the Bhavani and Noyyal river basins since the last decade of the 20th century (Harriss 1982, Krishnaswami 1989, Cawthorne 1993 and 1995, Chari 2000, Neetha 2002). Till the ’90s, the studies have focused on the labour issues and have not looked into the environmental problems. This article discusses the major factors that have influenced water demand in Coimbatore