Photographs : USHINOR MAJUMDAR
has filled the river with Croaker fish during the non-monsoon months . The Croaker fetches around Rs 50 – 80 per kilo and is not worth the amount we have to spend on fishing .”
In its 2018 report , the Comptroller and Auditor General of India ( CAG ) was sev erely critical of the fisheries department . “ There was no physical and financial planning for completion of the scheme within a certain timeframe ... The funds were diverted to show the utilisation of grants and to receive subsequent instalments . This resulted in erroneous booking of expenditure and irregular parking of funds , apart from the planned activities not being completed ,” the CAG report notes .
Even amid the scarcity , activists claim that industry has not suffered , thanks to malapportionment of water . “ They have refused to share the exact data for water released to the industries , but supply to them during this period has not been interrupted for several pumps , as per the response to some RTIs we filed ,” says Rabari . Pumping stations in Jhanor draw and send water from the river to the Dahej industrial area 60 km away . This substantially reduces the fresh water released from the dam into the river . Most of Bharuch relies on private
SHRIVELLED Fishermen contemplate a shrunken river ( far left ); water pumps litter the canal
reverse osmosis plants that sell potable water for Rs 20 per 20 litres . “ Now , the government is planning another barrage near Bhadbhut , near the river ’ s estuary , to supply water to Dahej . This is the place where the Hilsa used to spawn since the sea current would meet the river ’ s flow right here . The barrage will kill whatever fishing remains on the river ,” says Madhiwala . Simultaneous developments in 2017 have played havoc with the river-based economy . The sluice gates of the dam were shut , leading to shortages along the route of the river and the canals .
Many are also concerned about how the Narmada ’ s water is pumped into the Sabarmati . “ The Sabarmati River has been reduced to a pond for riverfront aesthetics under the Rs 2,000-crore beautification plan . The water from the Narmada is fed into the Sabaramati through canals in the north , and the Vasna barrage downstream , in the south of the city , keeps the level constant ,” says Bharatsinh Jhala , an RTI activist with civil society organisation CRANTI , which has a focus on farmers ’ rights .
On June 30 , Jhala took this reporter to his native village of Khambalav in Surendranagar district , 100 km southwest of Ahmedabad . A major irrigation canal of the Narmada dam has been dry since March , freezing all farming activity till the monsoon . “ Last year , there was so much water that it damaged all the crops along the canal . This year , everyone bought seeds and prepared for
Criticism has not dried up after the PM ’ s seaplane ride from the Sabarmati during last year ’ s election campaign in Gujarat . a summer crop , but now there has been no water in the canal for the last three months and it has stalled all farming activity ,” says Mahesh Bharwad of Tokrala village , who saw this reporter taking photographs of the dry canal and strolled up with a list of complaints .
Littering the sides of the canal are the diesel engines and PVC pipes that people use to pump water from the canal into their fields . This is illegal , so the farmers are labelled thieves and face cases . They claim they have to grease palms to water their fields , while minor irrigation fields are yet to be completed . The promise of irrigating every field in every village remains a distant dream .
CLOSER to Jhala ’ s village , Jit endrasinh Parmar has already taken loans to spend on the seeds and the tractor but can ’ t wait for the rain . Time was running out and so he hired a diesel pump to draw water from the well he had installed , which is fed by pre-monsoon showers . “ We have to pay whatever we are asked to pay for drawing water ‘ illegally ’ from the canal . Since the Narmada water has been stopped , I must draw this hard water from the well . It costs more than Rs 1,000 per day to hire and use the diesel rig , and if the monsoon is sparse , you have to continue to use it . Around 50 per cent of my input cost is towards water ,” says Parmar , who is busy pumping water from the well .
In Khambalav , a few farmers share Parmar ’ s woes and also bemoan the sums they must borrow to survive . The whole village , they claim , depends on money sent by villagers who have moved to the cities . There are no new jobs . And the drinking water situation is as pathetic as in Bharuch : the villagers must buy water at Rs 20 for a 20-litre can . “ Farmers here take loans of Rs 5 lakh from the bank and up to Rs 20 lakh from private moneylenders , who charge three per cent per month , and we have to mortgage our lands . The moneylenders show some leniency but the bank sends notices as soon as we default . But 720 farmers here are yet to receive any money for the crop failures under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana ,” say the Khambalav farmers . Any recurrence of such a crisis would invite a review of how the state had apportioned its water . And politically motivated diversions may not go down very well . O
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