Rivers Interlinking
The
main planing was chalked out in 2002-2003 under Atal ji in which a
plan was passed to interconnect thirty links and built three thousand
reservoirs. The idea was given by Arthur cotton in 19th
century and that was basically for navigation. The idea firstly came
into India in 1972 when K.L.RAO the then minister of irrigation and
power under Prime minister Indira Gandhi presented the idea. In 1982
National Water Development Agency (NWDA) prepared plan for thirty
links, three thousand reservoirs and 12500 km of canals. It was a
very daunting project. In 2002 NWDA estimated 5,60,000 crore
investment need in this but was not implemented.
Why interlinking?
– to check flood in north east
and eastern area.
– drought in western and
peninsular India
– temporal and spatial
variation regarding precipitation and availability
– depleting ground water
resource which is 62.95 percent used for irrigation.
Advantages-
– tackling drought and flood.
– more benefit example approx
34GW will be produced but for pumping will require only 3500 MW.
– 35 million hectare addition
under irrigation.
– agriculture production can be
doubled
– More availability of
utilisable water.
– Increase in employment 10
lakhs approx every year.
– growth of food processing
industries
Limitations -
– High cost is the biggest
hurdle.
– Its viability is in
speculation.
– Resource mobilisation.
– Rehabilitation
and resettlement
– Interstate
problem.
– environmental
and ecological loss.
Conclusion-
It is needed and may be started not on whole country scale but at
small scales and thus part to whole approach can be applied like that
of Pattiseema river project in which Godavari's
water is pumped through 174 km canal to parakasham barrage vijaywada.
There
are some alternatives as well:-
– effective
conservation in management of watershed in sub basin region
– in
urban areas efficient and effective use (recycling)
– Desalination
(though previously was costly but not decreasing and can be seen from
Saudi Arab)
Comments
Post a Comment