How mismanagement of water resources cause ecological crisis?
Answers
In May, India’s Water Resources Minister, Uma Bharti, claimed that transferring water to areas worst affected by drought was – or at least should be – the government’s top priority. Speaking about plans to divert the country’s rivers, she said: “We have got the people’s support and I am determined to do it on the fast track.” Whether the plans amount to anything or not remains to be seen.
In a move not seen since 1947, the proposed $168bn river-linking project will make use of water from surplus rivers and dams and divert it to lesser sites. Once completed, the 30 canals and 3,000 reservoirs will stretch across 15,000km to create 87 million acres of irrigated land and transfer 174 trillion litres of water a year. Yet critics argue the project could displace as many as it will save, and the loss of downstream biodiversity has ecologists up in arms. Experts, meanwhile, are concerned the costs could sap much-needed funding from areas such as health and education, and then there’s the more general criticism that nothing this size has ever been attempted before.
Controversial as the plans may be, the prospect of redrawing India’s landscape and defying its ecology is seen in some circles as the only feasible means of channelling water to the more than 330 million people affected by drought. Unprecedented in scale, the river diversion programme could spell disaster as easily as it could salvation for the millions who struggle daily with acute water shortages. The risks inherent in carrying through this project are proportional to the risks of not doing so.