State of Indian Rivers

At almost every year, we as a nation found that during the 2nd half of calendar year there is almost heavy rainfall in some parts of the country leading to floods killing almost 250 to 300 and during the 1st half of the year that follows, there is acute drought.

Last week, there was a news report which suggested that in bihar before the summer sets in almost 250 villages are facing drought situations. We talk of economy and when we talk, we restrict ourselves to the confines of urban folklore ignoring the mass who live in rural areas. There is no adequate water supply and power supply and roads. The basic infrastructure that required to be created for an economy to grow are not yet in place in most of the parts of our country.

Where are we heading ? Are we heading in the right direction ? Is our future taking the right shape in the form of good, better and best or bad, worse and worst ? The answer for all these questions seems to be in the inter-linking of west flowing rivers as far as south and north west and east flowing rivers in the eastern parts of our country. There is an enormous amount of clarity problem, when it comes to inter-linking of north-south rivers, but there is a definite possibility when it comes to inter-linking of two rivers within the regions or atleast within the states. There are adequate examples, where Andhra pradesh has linked two of its rivers and there is a river linking project between MP and UP.

There has been speculation that when inter-linking happens, like deforestation and loss of ground water and raise of sea water level, etc. Some of these concerns are true to some extent, but all these things can be discussed and countered. We are in a period of global warming and indiscriminate floods and change of weather patterns not only in our country, but across continents. And as a country, we are dependent on monsoon rains for our sustenance, and when the monsoon fails in one year, then the subsequent year drought brings in an apathy. To reduce the dependency on monsoon rains, the inter-linking can be tried out. We need to come out of petty political quarells like punjab stalling the river sharing agreement with haryana and kerala protesting the periyar dam issue, and the ever green cauvery and krishna water disputes between karnataka, tamilnadu and andhrapradesh. It is pending for quite a long time and as some states like, UP, MP and Andhra has shown the way, others can march forward for the safety of our future generations.