Environment

IAS Parliament 6 years

KEY POINTS

Advantages

· Reduce diversity between the water surplus and water scarce parts of India.

· Help in irrigation and storage as a large Indian agriculture is rainfall dependent.

· Mitigate droughts and floods.

· Will create employment and help in socio-economic development of people.

· Potential benefits to transportation through navigation, as well as broadening income sources in rural areas through fishing.

Concerns

· Environmental concerns – The ecology of every river is unique. Letting the waters of two rivers mix may affect biodiversity.

· Besides, it involves construction of a massive network of canals and dams, which would lead to large-scale displacement of people.

· It may make changes to agricultural patterns, and affect livelihoods.

· In addition, rainfall patterns are changing due to climate change.

· So the basins now supposed to be surplus, might cease to be so in few years.

· Financial concerns – In 2001, the total cost for linking the Himalayan and peninsular rivers was estimated at Rs 5,60,000 crore.

· The cost is now likely to be substantially higher. Also, the cost-benefit ratio might no longer be favourable.

Way Ahead

· Inter-linking of rivers initially appears to be a costly proposition, but in the long run the net benefits coming from it will far outweigh the losses.

· So, to make this techno-economically feasible, a sound scientific and technical assessment needs to be undertaken before implementing the proposal on a large scale.