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Some
sustainable solutions
By
Sanjay Sangvai
As the
drought situation in Gujarat and Rajasthan continues to worsen,
the political leaders, as usual, are resorting to the old game
of allocations for the emergency relief work and visible
mega-schemes, like transporting the water from railways etc.
After years of such experiments, one can be sure that the more
the allocations in hundreds of crores rupees, the more the
bureaucracy and the politicians would devour. Our political
establishment only waits for the crisis to happen and then start
thinking, politicising the entire ‘relief and rescue
operations’. The Gujarat water crisis was evident even in last
September, when the people in Gujarat had raised the slogans of
‘pehle paani-phir Advani ( first the water and after Advani,
elections). All these years the Gujarat government has not done
any worthwhile attempt for water harvesting and water
recharging, while the non-government efforts have proved their
isolated successes in these very ‘drought affected regions’
long back. Now the state politicians are resorting to the same
old gimmick of invoking the name of Narmada (Sardar Sarovar)
Project. They blame the non-completion of the project as the
cause of worsening the drought. The drought is now being used to
justify the project of doubtful utility, but of immense
political leverage.
Obviously,
these innuendoes are directed towards the final hearing of the
Narmada Bachao Andolan’s writ petition in the Supreme Court.
The Court has given the permission for increasing the height of
the dam for five meters plus 3 meters of humps. After that the
governments have been clamouring for further increase in the
height of the dam. The drought has come
handy to create the overall atmosphere in favour of the
dam. The Gujarat politicians can go on offensive for nothing. Be
as it may, the fact remains that Despite the avoidable tragedy
of drought, the fact remains that SSP cannot, even if completed,
be a true and lasting solution for the water crisis of the
drought prone areas of Gujarat. As Girish Patel, the President
of Lok Adhikar Sangha of Ahmedabad, puts it, “Over 70% of the
Gujarat people have nothing to do with the Narmada Project. It
is the already prosperous and power holding areas and sections
that are clamouring for the project.
Their voice is seen as the voice of Gujarat”.
Mirage
of Benefits
There
are number of well-substantiated reasons why the SSP cannot be a
real solution for the drought in Gujarat, even if it is built.
It is not at all for 98% of Kutch, for Jamnagar, Amreli,
Junagadh districts and majority of Rajkot, Bhavnagar and
Surendranagar districts. Even if the dam work would have
proceeded, only 1.6% and 9.24% of the total cultivable lands of
drought affected Kutch and Saurashtra would have seen the
canals, that too in 2025 and 2020 respectively. The Kutch is
provided with barely 2% of the water of the Sardar Sarovar
Project. There are number of claimants
for the water before even this miniscule amount of water
would reach to the drought affected regions. The incoming sugar
factories, the water schemes by the metros like Baroda and
Ahmedabad and the ‘water marketing’ for the industries
through the Sardar Sarovar canals, all have been a political
reality, which cannot be wished off. Gujarat government has
floated the concept of water marketing of the Narmada waters,
where the needy regions cannot figure in. There are number of
other reasons why the Narmada water would still be distant dream
for Gujarat, even if the anti-dam movement had not been there.
The estimate of water availability in Narmada has been 22
million acre foot (MAF), rather than earlier estimates of 28 MAF.
The irrigation efficiency presumed by our bureaucrats was 60%,
which has been unheard of and not possible.
Water
Marketing?
The
reality behind the drinking water is still murkier. Dam
authorities claim that the SSP would provide drinking water to
135 towns and cities along with at least 8215 villages. The
number of villages to be provided with drinking water has been
mysteriously increasing from zero at the time of NWDT Award to
4720 in 1983-84, 7235 in December 1990 to 8215 and now to all
the villages in
Kutch and Saurashtra. The recent information on the SSNNL
website (October 1999) claims that 0.86 MAF water is reserved
for 135 urban centres and 8215 villages and puts the
beneficiaries up to 40 million!
The
water allotted for Municipal and Industrial (M & I) use
remains at the 1979 level of 1.06 MAF. Of this only 0.2 MAF was
allotted for industrial use, but it is sure that the mushrooming
industry will have a lion’s share.
Over 2
lakh crore (2 trillion) rupees of industrial investment in petro-chemicals
and chemical complexes, including a port at Dahej has been
taking shape in the “golden corridor” area. According to the
Gujarat Industries Commissioner, industrial investment of Rs.
1.2 lakh crore was expected till 1997. Jamnagar, a region
already reeling with water scarcity under the groundwater
exploitation by industries, was targeted for the largest chunk
of the investment, followed by Bharuch and Surat, which together
make 69.4% of total investment. Baroda has been clamouring for
the Narmada waters and the Municipal Corporation of the city has
been making plans on that basis. The SSNNL has mooted the plan
to sell the Narmada waters to the industries and Ahmedabad
Municipality as a measure to collect money for the project. The
claims regarding the benefits will have to be seen in this
political reality. The political designs did not prop up all of
a sudden. The sugar factories and the booming industrial-urban
complex will be devouring whatever minuscule share of water
meant for the drought affected areas.
Beyond
the industries share, the SSNNL has offered to sell the canal
waters. The price of water has been fixed at Rs. 10-15 per
thousand litres. Large industrial houses with water requirements
are approaching the Nigam. The Managing Director of Nigam
boasted, “there would be surplus water for Gujarat in next
five decades as Madhya Pradesh would not be in a position to
draw on it till it completed its mega Narmada Sagar and 28 other
projects.” The concept of “water marketing” is flaunted
“to make the project viable.”
The
officer hinted at government’s designs,“the government
apprehending that the coming decade would be of water shortage
for Gujarat, had thought it prudent to exploit the commercial
possibilities of the project. Water marketing would be the first
in line to be followed by privatisation of power.” The water
allotted for rural areas (70 liters per head per day for 120
million people) is half of the urban provision (140 lphpd for
180 million people). The cattle have not been considered at all.
All this is anachronism in the age of Water marketing.
The
politicians of Gujarat know the truth and yet they have been
pursuing the dam cynically. The former Environment Minister of
Gujarat, Mr. Pravinshinh Jadeja told NBA in January, 1991 at the
time of Sangharsha Yatra that Narmada waters would not go beyond
Ahmedabad. Almost all the Gujarat politicians know this truth.
The present Narmada Minister, Mr. Jaynarayan Vyas too had
expressed cynicism about the Narmada Project. When he was a
legislator of Sidhpur in North Gujarat, he wrote that, even if
SSP were built, 80% of North Gujarat would remain without the
water. He recommended decentralised solutions for lowering
groundwater. Manubhai Kotadia, the former Union Water Resources
Minister, who hails from Saurashtra, admitted that, “SSP will
benefit only 10% area of Saurashtra, the government should
undertake small schemes for Saurashtra. All small irrigation
projects in Saurashtra are standstill because the allocations of
these schemes are being diverted for the SSP. Thus, Gujarat will
have to find the way out despite the completion of the Sardar
Sarovar dam which can be completed only by suppressing the real
social, environmental and financial costs and through
unacceptable means.
Sustainable
Alternatives
The
real, long term solution lies in a decentralised water
conservation network along with the optimum utilisation of the
available rainwater and groundwater in the drought affected
regions. Imperative measures for groundwater recharge include
restriction on its excess extraction for cash crops and “Green
Revolution” style agriculture. One has to scrutinize the
babble of the dam builders ad nauseum about the lack of rains in
Saurashtra and Kutch. From 1992 to 1997, there have been spells
of excess and devastating rains in Saurashtra, Kutch and North
Gujarat, inundating large areas.
Even
during the month of June, 29% to 125% of the annual average rain
had fallen in Kutch and Saurashtra. The newspapers have asked
the question “Despite ten consecutive good monsoon years, why
could the water problem not be solved?” It was pointed out
that, while during the monsoon, many areas of Saurashtra were
inundated that was only for some days. Why could the water not
be conserved, why could the groundwater not be recharged with
the help of this good rainfall?” We could not take full
benefit of nature’s bounty .”
The
rainfall may not be spread evenly over four monsoon months. The
Gujarat government has done nothing during all these years to
arrest the rainwater in the small dams or in the form of
groundwater.
The
Gujarat Land Development Corporation (GLDC) has plans for whole
of Kutch and Saurashtra, dividing the entire area into basins
and sub-basins. The crux is the availability of the reliable
source of 0.84 million acre feet (MAF) of water. If it is
available in Kutch and Saurashtra there is no need of the SSP
for drinking water purposes. The Technology Mission reported
that Kutch alone has a larger amount of unexploited water
available than this minimum requirement. P.H. Vora, Deputy
Director of GLDC reported that 15 MAF water has been flowing out
of Kutch and Saurashtra unutilised.
As
Ashwin Shah, the US based Indian expert on the water management
in Gujarat puts it, the rainfall and the needs of the water in
Gujarat are fairly decentralised, therefore the water management
too should be decentralised. He has also given a detailed
outline of the sustainable solution for water problem in the
area. The state government itself has district wise plans. The
people themselves can very well point out decentralised
solutions that might yield benefits much earlier and more
cheaply than the elusive Narmada Project.
According
to P.N. Phadatare, former Director of Central Groundwater Board,
each lean year in Saurashtra has always been followed by a year
with good monsoon. This has helped in well recharging, which
would fulfill the needs of the people. Accordingly, large scale
groundwater recharge and decentralised ways of water harvesting
are prescribed as long term water solutions for Saurashtra.
Groundwater recharge, Phadatare has shown, has a much lower cost
per thousand litres.
The
recharging of even 2 lakhs wells would bring up the groundwater
level throughout Saurashtra. The campaign has been able to
recharge thousands of wells during 1995-98. The endeavour
involves no big budget, no bureaucratic and unwieldy planning.
It is in the hands of peasants, can be implemented speedily
without complicated technology, and cheaply with early results.
Antala
has laid down a detailed plan for decentralised water harvesting
in rural and urban areas that includes resurrecting thousands of
tanks which are lying unused or as garbage pits in villages and
towns, well recharging and other measures. The state government
has not taken the watershed development and sea ingress
prevention works seriously.
Water
management does not mean large storage and canal networks. A
realistic irrigation policy and plan would consider the optimum
demand of the region, the land, terrain, ecological conditions
and the needs. It also does not mean excess grain production in
every area. It can be development of suitable resources which
contribute to the larger demands and to the local prosperity.
INAVl
Pen
of a woman
By
Surabhi Khosla
At
first it was in ones and twos. Today, they have arrived in
droves and are even threatening to outnumber their male
counterparts. This is the prevailing syndrome of women writers
in India.These intrepid ladies are keeping stride in a field
which has traditionally had far more men than women. It is not
surprising then, that for every Blue Bedspread there is Fasting,
Feasting and for every Ground Beneath Her Feet there is Ancient
Promises.
Almost
each month, readers are greeted with new names on the book
stands and the writing within the covers is refreshingly
original and true to life.And international recognition is
coming fast and swift. Starting with the Booker Prize to
Arundhati Roy, the Onasis International Competition Prize to
Majula Padmanabhan for Harvest and now the ultimate Pulitzer
Prizer to Jhumpa Lahiri for Interpreter of Maladies, women
writers are surpassing men in creativity.
A
sea change from the times when most went about their household
tasks and kept their talents at bay seldom thinking of honing
their skills beyond the point which got them published.It was
left to the Anita Desais, Kamala Das’s and Amrita Pritams to
seriously pursue a writing career as a vibrant mouthpiece of
their perceptions.But the metamorphosis has come in the last
couple of decades. Thanks to the opening up of branches by
upmarket foreign publishers like Penguin and Harper Collins,
women writers are today pursued as obsessively as men.
And
at the last count there were over sixty women writers of repute
in different Indian languages including English who were gaining
a respectability which was sometimes more than that reserved for
the male author.In a way thus, Indian contemporary writing owes
a depth of substance to these enterprising ladies who have taken
off from the literary launch pad and are soaring comfortably in
the world of serious readers.Their settings are usually the
everyday world of a middle class family as many of these new
women writers are themselves housewives and mothers. Shobha De,
who writes six to eight hours a day on an average, says that the
‘chaos of domesticity’ provides the trigger for her writing
process.
Award
winning bilingual author Mridula Garg began writing after
marriage. Though she says she enjoyed her children she did not
find her life fulfilled till she put pen to paper.Explaining the
sudden success of these ladies Dom Moraes once said in an
interview, “their themes are really feminine, close to the
home and hearth”.But times are changing. Though women writers
have managed a spectacular absorption of these domestic
situations to ignite their literary fire, their writings these
days often go beyond ‘hearth and home’.
Many
modern-day women authors are now expressing themselves freely
and boldly and on a variety of themes. Though there may still be
cases of the occasional male envy, these new writers are not
holding back in expressing the point of view from a feminine eye
without adopting feminist postures.At a recent seminar Shobha De
put it succinctly when she said, “the label of a ‘feminist
writer’ is one that marginalises. I for one identify myself as
a woman writer because of being read, judged and perceived
differently by male readers on account of my gender”.
In
a way Shobha De personifies the dilemma which has dogged Indian
woman writers. Traditionally if they stepped out of the
boundaries drawn by men they were ignored, sidelined or
silenced. They were merely the minority sub-culture in a male
domain.But authors like Manju Kapur, Jaishree Mishra, Jhumpa
Lahiri, Mridula Garg, Arundhati Roy and more, are fast perishing
this traditional image. For them the age of the women writer has
finally arrived.“For centuries children have gathered around
their grandmothers’ knees to listen to tales. Women have been
unofficial story tellers to generations. But when it came to
documenting literature, men historically dominated the role of
authors”, said leading women writers at a seminar organised by
a Delhi based NGO, Interventions For Support, Healing and
Awareness.
Top
women writers including Mridula Garg, Shobha De, Manju Kapur,
and Urvashi Butalia--director of Kali for Women, a
women-specific publishing house--agreed that the age of the
woman writer has indeed arrived.“Women are talking about sex,
about men, and are expressing their feelings in no uncertain
terms”, they noted with satisfaction.Till a few decades ago
such writings were still done by women at their own peril as
male censure was prevalent. To highlight their point they cited
the case of Mridula Garg’s novel Chitcobra.
After
its publication in the seventies, Garg was arrested and charged
with the Obscenities Act. Her crime: She highlighted the female
protagonist as pryagya-rupa (aware woman) as opposed to just
matri-rupa and priya-rupa (mother and lover). The book
delineated a thinking woman’s dichotomy between the body and
mind while making love to her husband.More than two decades
after the Chitcobra controversy, women writers have become more
emphatic and forceful. They have begun to break free and discuss
issues which were taboo till just a few years ago.
Though
Shobha De says she simply writes about women’s lives through a
woman’s eyes, she feels that writing about sexuality is still
hurtful to men as, “it could mean women talking about being
bored with their husbands sexually, mentally or
spiritually”.Most writers at the symposium felt that down the
ages labels have been used to marginalise women whose writings
had a feminist content. Labels compromised their overall
creativity because they were women. But Subhadra Butalia felt
that labels were what women authors wanted to make of them. They
could be rejected.
Manju
Kapur, author of best-selling Difficult Daughters, said she
wrote in a female voice because she “knew no other voice”.
But she candidly admitted she had difficulty creating likeable
male characters. Men in her books, like men in society, came
across as negative since they are overly demanding in
relationships. “They often hurt women without sometimes
knowing they had done so”. Mridula
Garg said that her women characters would not like to be men.
“However, the co-existence of feminine and masculine as in
‘Ardhanareshwar’ connotes likeability”.
And
that appears to be the direction being followed by leading women
writers. The issues are no longer feminist or chauvinistic. They
are everyday issues faced by everyday people. Top women authors
are finally obliterating the gender bias in writing. Their
language is not contorted version of the Queen’s English but a
language they have learnt in India. A kind of a Hinglish where
Hindi words are often used but seldom explained because it is
the everyday language which is used in educated urban India.
Unlike
the writers of yesteryears, today’s women are a merry medley
of professionals, housewives and mothers. Short story writers,
authors and chroniclers, these women writers are blazing a new
trail which is making them a force to reckon with.Interestingly,
however, their books are not ambitious in scale or volume. Many
times the daily chores of the household--the immediate family,
the relationships and the joys and sorrows--become the setting
of their works.Or, as poetess Rukmani Bhaya Nair puts it,
“Have wrung poems from households tasks/carrying water, child,
sorrow....”
The
united colours
of nature
By
Saikat Neogi
Take a
deep breath at the foothills of the Himalayas and step right
into the heart of nature. Thick oak, deodar and pine forests
will wrap you in their silence. Break the calm only to hear the
chirping of birds and rustling of leaves.
Five
years ago when three photographer friends -- Gurinder Osan,
Pradip Bhatia and Dinesh Krishnana -- read the inviting
description of the mountains, they slung their camera kits on
their shoulder, revved up their motorbikes and began a journey
which has not ended since then.
The
only difference here is that things weren’t that simple. The
load they carried was not just a camera kit but also included a
tent and a rucksack, food supplies to last for a few days
in case they were stuck in uninhibited parts of the Himalayas
and other knick knacks for the hazardous mountain journey.
Their
mission: Not just to soak in the rugged terrain and discover
unexplored places, but to document on camera the essence of the
Himalayas with an artist’s eye for beauty.
Five
years later, today, the many journeys of these camera-and
motorbike junkies have resulted in a stunning exhibition titled
‘Endless Horizons’ which recently concluded in Delhi on and
goes on an onward journey to Chandigarh, Mumbai and Bangalore.
Being
professional photographers and art graduates, it is not
surprising that the end result is both stunning and awe
inspiring. Partly because of their skills and more so because of
the wondrous landscapes of the Himalayas.
The
pictures capture depth, detail and the eerie stillness of the
region. Revealed is the expanse of nature and the unsullied
purity of the Himalayas. Each picture transports the
viewer to the mountains taking him over treacherous passes, icy
crevices and glaciers in a profusion of colours.
The
three intrepid adventurists made their first ascent to the upper
reaches of the Himalayas in September 1996 motorbiking from
Delhi to Manali, Rohtang and onward to Leh and Ladhak.
‘The
drive from Manali to Ladhak was absolutely over whelming,’
says Gurinder Osan, a freelance photographer, ‘We’d never
had such a great time before. Roadblocks, breakdowns and icy
winds never deterred us. Instead they were a part of the
adventure. We have enjoyed every single trek of ours.’
Before
embarking on a trip, the three work out their strategy
meticulously before leaving Delhi. Though, says Pradeep Bhatia,
“At most times the plans collapse because of wind and weather
conditions and we have to then go by our instincts.’
The
three have often had to take long detours because of landslides,
slippery roads and snow-covered treks. ‘At times we have had
to pitch our tents in
total darkness and take turns in keeping a vigil for fear of
snakes and wild animals’. says Dinesh Krishnan.
For the
trio, the Rohtang pass is both the most favourite and memorable
spot. The magnificent mountains and glaciers were just
the kind of scenes which had first lured them to the
Himalayas, Now Rohtang Pass has become a must stop over place
for them in every visit as it not just gives them a sense of
familiarity but also brings them close to nature.
The
region encompassed by the trio in their various treks spreads
from Leh to Manali and then onto a detour to the wilderness of
the Garhwal Himalayas.
‘Though
we have been motorbiking since 1988, but the exhibition is
largely a combination of two major trips undertaken in 1996 and
‘says Gurinder Osan.
For the
three who have been friends since they started out as
professional photographers raving up from one peak to the other
was a natural progression from shooting only news pictures.
Biking
through rough mountain terrain and carrying a load of over 200
kg each can be a back breaking experience. But they have a
different way of looking at it. If luxury was what we were
after, then we could have easily flown to Leh and Manali and
taken pictures without ever experiencing being so close to
nature, admits Krishnan.
The
trio’s pictures capture the Himalayas in all their lofty
glory. Mountains with streams cascading down from their middle
appear like paintings on a picture postcard. Some of the peak
appear to change colours several times a day with the
progression of the sun. The trio plan to bring out a coffee table book of their
exotic pictures, which the three assure would be worth paying
and waiting for those who love the mountains.
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