Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 16 July 2018 | Page 14
DRY STATE
No Fish in
Water Vapour
The Narmada waters politics and industry while
farmers and fishermen suffer in Gujarat
by Ushinor Majumdar
in Bharuch, Surendranagar
and Ahmedabad
N
ARMADA. The very name
means ‘pleasure-giver’, and it
adorns a river that is life-giver
to millions. But it has also been
the source of much consterna-
tion over the decades—a run-
ning sore that has flared up once again.
In Gujarat, the last few months have
seen a torrent of criticism directed at
the manner in which the river’s water
is apportioned. The most marginal-
ised stakeholders—farmers and fish-
ermen—complain of major shortages
and blame uncompromised supply to
industries and splurging on optics
during last year’s assembly election
campaign while they are left to suffer.
This criticism didn’t dry up after PM
Narendra Modi’s seaplane ride from
the Sabarmati ahead of the polls.
The impact struck home this summer
when the water in the Sardar Sarovar
reservoir fell to 106 metres. But the
monsoon will set things right, hopes the
Narmada Control Authority (NCA).
“The Narmada basin had a deficit rainfall
of 26 per cent, and the dam had a deficit
of 46 per cent, which we had intimated
14 OUTLOOK 16 July 2018
to all state governments in November.
Due to lack of non-monsoon rainfall,
this was further aggravated,” says
Mukesh Sinha, executive member, NCA.
Despite the NCA’s warning, a lot of
water overflowed in dams across the
state before the elections. It had been
diverted to fill reservoirs in Saurashtra
and Bhuj, showcasing how the govern-
ment had channelled water to dams in
those areas, but the excess water could
not be stored and had to be let out.
Terrific optics, to be sure—but farmers
and fishermen are now paying the price.
Sagar Rabari of Gujarat Khedut Samaj,
the state’s largest farmer activist group,
blames this diversion for the shortfall.
He points out that in the 1980s, the
Gujarat government had demanded
nine million acre-feet (MAF) of water
from the Narmada, to be shared as 0.86
MAF for potable water, 0.20 MAF for
industries (increased to 0.25 MAF) and
7.94 MAF to irrigate 18,41,000 hectares
of rain-fed farmland. “Every dam has a
water use plan and any use beyond that
requires cabinet approval. The release
of water to fill up dams in Saurashtra
and Bhuj is not part of the plan,” he says.
Such things were fixed long ago, and
surely need updating. “600 cusecs is
released downstream from the dam to
feed the main river as per a 25-year-old
decision when the only industry here
was the GIDC unit in Ankleshwar. Since
then, several industrial areas have come
up in Dahej and Bharuch and the popu-
lation has increased at least threefold.
We petitioned the governments of MP
and Gujarat and the Centre for 6,000
cusecs of water to be released into the
main river,” says Bharuch-based advo-
cate Kamlesh Madhiwala.
The shortages have hit the fishermen
who ply the waters of the Narmada’s
mouth. A large chunk of their catch is
the Hilsa, shipped to Mumbai and West
Bengal. The male Hilsa fetched Rs 250–
300 per kilo for the fishermen while the
egg-bearing female would fetch around
Rs 700–800 till a few years ago.
“The price of the female Hilsa has shot
up to Rs 1,000–1,200 due to its scarcity
in the last three years. From between
100 and 200 fish per day per boat, it has
come down to around 10–12 fish per day
per boat,” says Pravin Machhi, a local
fisherman. Blaming the Sardar Sarovar
dam diversion, he adds, “The variety of
riverine fish has decreased for the
non-monsoon months. Due to the dec
rease of river water in these last three
years, the high saline ingress of the sea-
water—as much as 70-80 km upstream—