Water and votes

The reasons given by the Gujarat government for the urgent need to raise the Sardar Sarovar dam's height form a facade; the fact is that the dam is crucial to the BJP's election campaign.

IT is commonly acknowledged that the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) is more than a dam. It is a crucial election issue for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and has been so ever since the party won the Assembly elections last year and Chief Minister Narendra Modi made the claim that Narmada waters had reached Kutch. Government propaganda has been so effective that there has been intense pressure on the government itself to raise the dam's height. Thus, when he received the green signal for further construction, Modi used the opportunity to launch his campaign on March 20 with a Narmada Pujan Yatra, which began at Ahmedabad and ended at Kevadia. He was a mere 5 km from the dam site when the Election Commission issued a ban order on the yatra saying it violated the model code of conduct.

The Gujarat government convinced the Rehabilitation and Environment Sub Groups of the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) to grant permission to raise the dam height on two grounds: an urgent need for hydro power and the fear that delays in construction were causing high cost overruns.

The first reason is easy to debunk. Power from Sardar Sarovar will be obtained via two powerhouses - the riverbed powerhouse will provide 1,200 MW and the canal head powerhouse 250 MW. Both these capacities are achievable only when the dam has reached its full height of 138 metres, and even then only at the peak season, that is, during the monsoon. Only the canal head powerhouse has been built. At the present height of 110.64 metres, the head powerhouse can produce a maximum of 90 MW during the monsoon and less than 40 MW, and for some time, no power at all, in the non-monsoon period. The canal head powerhouse, which is positioned at 110.64 metres, has five generators of 50 MW each. But the water has to be above this height to generate power. Since water is taken into the main canal through the Integrated Bypass Tunnel positioned at 89.7 m, the reservoir level will not remain at the required level beyond October-November. Three other dams that are required in this balance of water levels - Narmada Sagar, Omkareshwar and Maheshwar - are not operational. Without them it is impossible to maintain the dead water level in the Sardar Sarovar reservoir at 110.64 metres.

Therefore, for the Gujarat government to say that 110.64 metres is essential to provide power to the State is a misrepresentation of facts.

Cost overruns, the second reason cited for the hasty decision to raise the dam height, are inevitable in any project where there are delays, but in the case of the SSP cost estimates have been unrealistic from the start. Take the example of the finances involved in the construction of the irrigation canal network. Financial difficulties dog the government and are likely to hamper the plans to provide water to the entire state by 2010. While the dam height itself has risen to over 100 metres, the realities of water distribution are yet to be put in place. Water is flowing in the main canal but there are many problems that the State government is trying to hide. The construction is shoddy. There are missing links between the main canal and the branch canals. There is a lot of leakage. There are still disputes over the land on which the canal has to be built, and in some areas tenders are still being floated. A sum of Rs.17,000 crores is required to build the 66,000 km of canal network.

"That is an amount equal to three annual State plans," said an informed source. Finances are being juggled between the raising of the height of the dam and the building of the Kutch-Saurashtra canals and pipelines and the network of canals required for the promised irrigation. About 45 per cent of the finances involved are said to be required just for the irrigation network. However, since the dam has become a matter of political prestige, it is equally necessary to display something substantial to the public and so a vast amount is being spent on the dam structure itself.

Irrigation Department officials say that of the available 26,000 cusecs of water at the present height, not even 10 per cent is being utilised for irrigation purposes effectively. Apparently, this is because the work on command area development has been neglected. Moreover, the basic survey work prior to construction, of vast tracts of Saurashtra, Kutch, north Gujarat and central Gujarat, still remains to be done. "If the State is able to raise the needed finance - which is a questionable issue looking at the cut in annual plans, right from the year 2000-01 - it is still a stupendous task that would require time beyond the deadline of 2010 to complete. Even if inflation stays at the present rate, in 2010 the required fund, Rs.17,000 crores now, would have crossed the Rs.25,000-crore mark," said a reliable source.

Poor financial planning has led to financial irregularities. According to Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator at the South Asian Network for Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), money lent by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the purpose of earthquake rehabilitation in Kutch has been diverted to the construction of the Narmada pipeline to take water to Kutch and Saurashtra. The SANDRP wrote to the ADB pointing out this.

Thakkar says: "Their reply did not deny what we said." The ADB explained that part of the fund was to help in rebuilding the damaged water supply in Kutch and so there was nothing irregular about assisting in the building of the Narmada pipeline. The answer was evasive, he says. According to Thakkar, the Narmada pipeline did not exist during the Kutch earthquake and since the funds were for rebuilding and not a new construction, using the money for the pipeline did constitute misuse of funds. And second, as Thakkar points out, "if the ADB is interested in funding the Narmada project why doesn't it do it more directly?"

Himanshu Upadhyay, a freelance researcher on public finance, has described the dam as being "at the core of the political economy of the State." There is no doubt that the SSP and its accessory projects have attracted business houses. "In Gujarat, it is clear that the priority in development policy matters is given to industries. There is no doubt that corporate industrialists really benefit from the dam's waters. Drinking water is also a sure benefit, but not at all cost-effective as the pipelines to carry this extraneous water will put a heavy weight on the annual budgets. Drought and drinking water are used as the pilot tools to conceal the vested interest groups," said an informed source, who also told Frontline that four well-known business houses (two of which also hold shares in the SSP) and one spiritual trust in Gujarat are especially keen that the project becomes operational. One of the business houses has already begun designing the water marketing structure that is likely to be awarded to it.

That water has become a money-spinner in Gujarat is only too obvious. An informed source said: "At one point the Gujarat government was seriously interested in local resource development, rainwater harvesting and well recharging. Sincere efforts were made in rain-scarce regions like Saurashtra till it was realised that sustainability was not a money-spinner. It did not offer any rolling money. Hence big projects are a must to keep the economy rolling today, which has serious implications for tomorrow. My concern is that Gujaratis should be helped to see through this veil and understand that Narmada is not a solution for Gujarat's water problem but only a supplement. Gujaratis are going to pay a great price for this if they continue to refuse to see the truth."