05 Mar 2023  |   06:00am IST

Fulu Fustar Foznem: Development for Whom and at Whose Cost and Therefore What?

Acritical question that we must ask of those who are governing when rivers are sought to be diverted is WHO AND WHY, apart from WHAT, WHERE AND HOW. 

Currently in the news is the announcement that the Central Water Commission of the Government of India has approved the Detailed Project Report prepared by Government of Karnataka for the construction of dams at Kalsa, Halsara, Bhandura and now even Surla on Mhadei river which will result in the diversion of the Mhadei waters to the Malaprabha Reservoir Project in Karnataka. 

The Union Government as also the Government of Karnataka has projected that the diversion of the waters would benefit the farmers in Karnataka who are facing water scarcity. Just because we are in Goa, we need not be unconcerned about the conditions of farmers in Karnataka. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. But the next question would be: why are the farmers facing water scarcity? A recent presentation at Margao, by Zeferino Fernandes, brought out clearly the nexus between the setting up of the coal hub in Goa, the diversion of the waters of Mhadei and the corporates, whose interests these governance policies are meant to fuel. 

The Khalasa Bhanduri dam, the Government would like us think, is meant to divert water from the Mahadeo Basin to the deficit basin of the Malaprabha river. But why is there deficit in the Malaprabha river? The High Level Committee to Suggest Appropriate Water Management Strategies for Karnataka State Irrigation Projects, March 1999, put it down to indiscipline in the use of water. Water guzzling crops like sugarcane were being planted on huge tracts of land to feed the sugar factories. The Malaprabha Reservoir Project had already submerged several villages completely, besides inducing a change-over to water guzzling crop production for the big farmers at the starting end of the project to fuel the sugar factories. Hectares of forest land and cultivated land have been submerged for this dam, just so that the Mhadei could be damned and dammed for the sugar factory.  So the small farmers of Karnataka faced drought conditions and did not benefit from the Project although the Project was carried out in the name of farmers.

The diversion of the Mhadei and the Detailed Project Report of Karnataka, is a repeat performance of a similar nature. This time the motivation is the feeding of the Suvarna Karnataka Industrial Corridor, which shall be the beneficiary of the water diversion and of the coal being transported to Karnataka from Goa’s Marmagoa Port. Goa is now going to be the sacrificial goat, for the palette of coal and water for the water guzzling industries in the Corridor, which in turn are meant to feed port empires. Whose port empires? Adanis and Jindals, are two prominent examples. At whose cost? At the farmers’ cost. Because when water from the upper riparian end is diverted thus, the lower riparian region, which is in Goa, will suffer, impacting  agriculture, domestic water consumption, fisheries and navigation in Goa. 

As a matter of fact, Dr. Manoj Ibrampurkar in his 2012 thesis on Hydrological and Hydrogeological Evaluation of Mhadei River watershed, in Goa and Karnataka, has affirmed that the people dwelling in the Mhadei River watershed depend heavily on this groundwater for their domestic and agricultural requirements, apart from it being a channel of transport. After making an impact assessment of surface water development projects on the downstream hydrological regime of Mhadei River watershed, Dr. Ibrampurkar concluded about the possible a) reduction in flow velocity, b) excessive silt accumulation on the river bed, c) flooding, d) reduction in groundwater levels in the vicinity, e) water logging along the river banks, f) reduction in water storage in the bandharas in Goa, on which a large population is dependent, g) fragmentation of the Mhadei ecosystem, adversely impacting the flora and fauna of the region, h) changes in the water quality. Further, Dr. Ibrampurkar in a recent panel discussion has emphasised that there is need for more scientific data. How can such diversions and tampering with nature take place without detailed peer-reviewed studies in the public domain that will look at the aspects of the river at various locations and the interface between the river and the people in those locations?

It comes as no surprise that this issue is raised during elections each time because it is in keeping with the Government’s divide and rule policy that only facilitates the kingpins of industry whose interests the Government is aligned with. This writer has followed at least the election campaigns in 2004, 2018 and the present campaign to well understand that the Union Government wants to eat the cake and keep it too. That is, seeking to assuage the farmers’ concerns, while actually pandering to the big corporates for the maximisation of their profits

Shooting from the shoulders of poor farmers, it is actually paving the way for further loss of lands of these poor farmers and loss of forest cover, so the industrial barons may prosper. At election times, this may give a feel good factor to the farmers, while the ruling party laughs its way to the bank with support from the likes of Adani and Jindal, whose coal berths at the Mormugao Port are already a source of much pollution and disruption of health in the city and even beyond, besides almost normalising corruption and fomenting a hydropolitics of hate in all the areas they populate. The issue then becomes a jingoistic Goa v/s Karnataka issue, instead of a people vis-à-vis crony capitalists issue. This in turn forecloses the possibilities of solidarities between people of both or rather all the three states of Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra over the diversion of waters, all of whom are victims of these capitalist technocratic policies.

A Civil Society Initiative that resulted in the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Rivers, expressed its concern that “excessive waterway diversions and groundwater withdrawals have significantly reduced flows in rivers worldwide, with many waterways now running completely dry, despite scientific consensus that adequate flows are fundamental to the survival of river ecosystems and serve as the lifeblood of many river-dependent freshwater and riparian ecosystems”. There is also a concern expressed in the Declaration that “humans have caused widescale physical changes to rivers through dams and other infrastructure, which includes the construction of over 57,000 large dams worldwide that impact over two-thirds of all rivers, resulting in fragmented habitats, reduced biodiversity, imperiled fish populations, exacerbated climate change, and retained sediment and nutrients that are fundamental to downstream ecosystem health”. It goes without saying that the reference to humans is about governmental interventions. 

The river dependent freshwater and riparian ecosystems referred include the people, particularly the indigenous people, the fishing community, the Dalits who have historically engaged with the rivers and have a symbiotic existence with the rivers and therefore have stakes in the future of the rivers, and are best placed to be the guardians of the rivers. These diversions meant to fuel the interests of a select few are at the cost of these very guardians of the rivers.

Now bypassing these guardians, the Union Government has constituted Mahadayi Prawah or the Mhadei Water Management Authority to ensure fair distribution and prevent illegal diversion of water. But it will not be construed an ‘illegal’ diversion if there is a formal approval from the Union Government. So who is the Government of Goa really kidding?

We must make sure that the projected solution is not worse than the problem. We cannot be silent spectators to a scenario where in the name of the poor farmers of Karnataka, the development envisaged by the diversion of Mhadei waters can prejudice the marginal sections both in Karnataka and Goa, while the big corporates laugh their way to the bank.

(Albertina Almeida is a lawyer and human rights activist)

IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar