Accepted Papers - 3.pdf - UNESCO

chase food self sufficiency as a goal seem to occupy
a more commanding position, politically and
economically. Thus, the threat of use of food as a
weapon may not be a deterrent to them. After
consideration of these aspects, most decision makers
feel that food self sufficiency should be an explicit
objective of interlinking of rivers.
SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
OF INTER-LINKING OF RIVERS
In India, the planners are familiar with the social
and environmental concerns caused by small, medium
and large in-basin projects. Few NGOs have
expressed that inter-basin transfers may cause socioeconomic
and environmental impacts much different
from those caused by in-basin developments. The
social and environmental concerns associated with
these inter-basin transfers would mainly on account
of the largeness of the totality of the measures in
the region in which the system of links passes. Each
individual storage dam such as the Ichampally, the
Polavaram, the Manibhadra/ Tikarpara etc involved
in the peninsular links would not be much different
in its storage or in its displacement from the large
reservoirs like Gandhisagar, Sardar Sarovar,
Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar etc which are existing.
Similarly, we already have experienced about large
canals exceeding discharge capacities of 1000
cumec and the link canals would be not of much
larger magnitude through these would be of much
larger links. The existing inter-basin transfers in India
do not seem to have experienced any such problem.
CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT AS APPLIED TO WATER
RESOURCES
Short vs. long term considerations:- There are
some fundamental dichotomies on the time
framework for sustainability of water resources
projects for practical application. For example, the
life period of a small check dam, run-off river barrage
and a large multi-purpose dam can not be considered
to be similar. Accordingly, there should be
considerable flexibility in terms of the type of projects
being considered while applying the fundamental
assumption behind the concept of sustainable
development that it would be viable over the long
term. Many times, sustainable development is
referred vaguely to several generations. Further, we
have to reconcile the short term expectations of the
main users (farmers in an irrigation project) with the
long term needs of the society.
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Externalities : In most of the projects, the private
costs or benefits do not equal to social costs or
benefits. The internalisation of such costs has not
been easy through taxes, subsidies and regulations
due to main reasons of difficulties in calculations of
precise value of externalities, forceful difference of
considerable private advantages by powerful
individuals and organisations, time gap between
realisation of such costs and regulations to control
such externalities in the developing countries.
Risks and uncertainties : The water resources
development is confronted with large scale risks and
uncertainties due to highly complex environmental
system. The existing knowledge and data base is
inadequate to identify the parameters that could
indicate the passage from sustainable to
unsustainable stage. Further if, on already complex
issues, additional factors such as potential climatic
changes are superimposed; the degree of
uncertainties increases tremendously in terms of
detecting or predicting the transition process.
Above concepts should be systematically
analysed by multi-disciplinary experts for their
scientific application in real life. Commonly used
words ‘holistic approach’ and ‘sustainable’ are
difficult to be understood in specific sense.
TIRADE BY NON-PROFESSIONALS AND
SELF SYLED ENVIRONMENTAL
ACTIVISTS
Even a layman can appreciate that in the
situation of monsoonic weather in our country,
storage of river flows during floods is unavoidable
not only to meet the basic needs of bulging population
for diverse uses but also to moderate the floods,
droughts and poverty. Most of the people associated
with environmental activism and press reporting in
India have very little understanding of the complex
multi-disciplinary environmental processes. Most of
the personnel associated with the tirade against water
storage projects have very little understanding of the
‘dose-response functions’ of the complex
environmental processes and are ignorant of intricate
multi-disciplinary techniques of water resources
development. An overview of the environmental
impacts of the water resources development in India
is of particular interest at the present stage of
development. It is evident that large water storage
projects are surely better alternatives wherever
the parameters such as the volume of water flow,
geological and topographical considerations and