The Hindu : National : Height of Narmada dam should not be raised: South Asia network

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Monday, May 19, 2008
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Height of Narmada dam should not be raised: South Asia network

Gargi Parsai

Says Gujarat didn’t fully use water from project last year

NEW DELHI: Even as the Narmada Control Authority is looking at the rehabilitation claims of States affected by the Narmada dam in Gujarat, the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People has said that there is no case for raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar Project and that it should be frozen at the current height of 121.92 metres.

Several thousand people being displaced by the dam in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat are seeking proper rehabilitation and resettlement.

Questioning the demand for raising the dam height to the next and final level of 138.68 metres, the Network said Gujarat could not utilise 93.55 per cent of the water that was available to it from the Sardar Sarovar Project in 2007.

It obtained this information under the Right to Information Act from the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited, the Gujarat government organisation in charge of the controversial project.

“State has no case”

Himanshu Thakkar of the Network asserted that Gujarat had no case for increasing the dam height from the current level, as it had failed to utilise the available water.

“According to the information received, Gujarat had passed 19.91 BCM (billion cubic metres) of water through its Canal Head Power House and River Bed Power House during 2007. Of this, water available to Gujarat at the SSP, Gujarat could use only 1.285 BCM. This means that Gujarat could not utilise 93.55 per cent of the water.”

Important implications

“These figures have many important implications. First, this means that Gujarat has no case. Secondly, it is the mismanagement of the project by Gujarat that is responsible for this abysmal under-utilisation of the country’s costliest irrigation project ever. 93.55 per cent of the water available from the project could not be utilised basically because Gujarat has yet to build the canal infrastructure that is necessary for making such utilisation possible. Instead of focussing on optimum utilisation of the water made available, the Gujarat government has been focussing on just increasing the height of the dam and unjustly submerging lands and [displacing] people.”

As per the statistics made available by the SSNNL, as against the total water share of Gujarat and Rajasthan of 11,718.345 MCM (million cubic metres) under the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) Award, Gujarat received at the SSP in 2005, 2006 and 2007 much more quantum of water.

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