World Commission on Dams / Reuters Media Symposium 14 July 1999

Dams, Development, Food Security

A Review of India's Development Choices

By B.G. Verghese

Mr. Verghese is a research professor with the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, India. He is a prominent newspaper columnist and a member of India's National Commission on Integrated Water Resources Development. He served as information advisor to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the 1960s and has been editor of The Hindustan Times and Indian Express. The following are notes for his speech.

1. Timely - as population now 6 bn and growing. India 336 m in 1947; 1000 m today; 1650 m by 2060, livestock too. A new era. False comparison with past - "in my childhood', "Father used to say", Nostalgia. In what is now the developing world, that was the age of Malthus and malaria. Can't go back.

2. Some who oppose dams wish to recapture the past; a supposedly idyllic, arcadian world, decentralised, on a human scale, where small alone is beautiful, energy intensity is low, urbanisation limited. That's nostalgia. To live in the past is to ignore the challenge and opportunities of the future.

All civilisations have grown around water. When the world was young, people moved to water - nomad, migration. Today, in a crowded, urbanising world, water must be moved to people.

Key words of symposium: water, dams, food security, the environment, human rights, development.

3. Water - basic for life; not just animal existence but health, sanitation, quality of life. Half India's morbidity is water related. So provision of water is itself of huge health giving measure. Vectors/water borne diseases can be controlled.

Less than one per cent of all world water is freshwater. Rest in oceans; polar ice caps and glacial stock. So harness and conserve.

4. Why dams? Because not all freshwater is utilisable. It comes from precipitation - the monsoons and winter westerlies in South Asia - which would disappear in destructive floods if not redistributed more evenly over space and time.

In India, 80 per cent and more rain during monsoon - 100 days span - 45 rainy days and 60-80% precipitation in just 6-8 intense spells. Harness it where and when we can - in situ; by extending residence time to encourage infiltration/groundwater recharge; by digging, repairing, replenishing tanks, ponds wetlands; watershed management, building little check dams, small and medium irrigation works. Do all that - and you still need large dams.

Not either/or, but all of these. Limited natural sites for cost-effective regulation of rivers to store/moderate the floods and release this beneficially for agriculture, domestic and municipal use, industry and recreation through the lean season. Hydro generation can come from stand-alone and multipurpose schemes and the power used to pump and lift water.

Many small dams seldom add up to or can substitute a large dam. Valley geometry/area of submergence/evaporation/rainfall between catchment and command.

5. Indian agriculture was a "gamble in the monsoon". Alternating famine and flood. 1967 drought; "from ship to mouth". 90 m t of PL 480. Both independence and economic stability threatened. Today 30 m t reserve. Grain production up from 52 to 203 m t. Have to reach 420 m t by 2050 to feed, clothe and employ burgeoning population.

No more famines. Indeed, India is emerging as a world granary, an agricultural superpower. Fruit, vegetable, milk, sugarcane, even grain. Income distributions skewed so hunger persists.

India has moved from famine to food self-sufficiency to assurance of food security. If Indian and Chinese harvests are down 10 per cent, world grain surpluses would vanish and prices go through the roof. India is a very major player in the global food cycle. Undermine this and there will be a global food crisis.

6. What has produced this transformation? Irrigation - largest irrigator in the world. 55 - 60 m ha out of 180 m ha arable land. With multiple cropping a gross area of 90 m ha under irrigation. Irrigation "stretches" or multiplies land, provides employment and enhances labour intensity of agriculture and farm service sector. This employment vital as net addition to Indian labour force is 9-10 m per annum.

This employment and income generation sustains the Indian market, industry, exports and economic growth for poverty reduction. It is a powerful trigger.

Two thirds of India's farm production comes form one third of its land which is irrigated. Rest, dry farming 55%of this irrigation comes from groundwater; but large part of GW comes from irrigation recharge, esp in the more arid zones, e.g. NW India. Bhakra has transformed India.

7. If India harness its water resources fully, gross irrigated area could go to 135 m ha. Without that the nation will not be able to feed itself.

Better water management, drainage, conjunctive use, conservation, agrarain reform, pricing of water as an economic good, etc. are all necessary. Else, water, poor O&M, etc

8. This leads to the environmental impacts of dams. Submergence, forest/biodiversity/cultural loss, effects on acquatic life, water quality issues including sedimentation, waterlogging and salinity, dam safety, and of course, displacement.

Losses can be avoided, mitigated and compensated with sound EIA and monitoring mechanisms in place. Some losses may be wholly unacceptable. In which case drop the dam or shift it. Otherwise, look at cost; benefit ratios - direct/indirect, short term/generational; catchment vs. command; equity and gender effects, etc. if overall benefits exceed costs, go ahead. If better alternatives or combinations, adopt them. Be pragmatic. Ideological opposition to dams is mindless.

Remember: not doing is a decision that also carries a cost. This too often ignored. Likewise, there is the opportunity cost of delay. In the Himalayan region or in more arid areas, the girl-child and women spend a whole lifetime walking - to fetch water, fuel and fodder. Which cost-benefit study calculates this cost? Yet it is a monumental cost; for the health, education and well being of women is central to effecting a demographic transition.

In India, "forest" is an administrative term. It does not necessarily mean tree cover. Many South Asian forests are secondary, not prime. No evidence of any real bio-diversity loss. Habitat loss primarily from population growth.

Unlike in more affluent societies, in South Asia environmental degradation comes from poverty - living on the margin. This is not to blame the poor but recognise the development imperative. Mining of groundwater, untreated effluent and sewage discharge, return irrigation flows from argo-chemical farming - all add to pollution. Conscious efforts to deal with all of these through upgradation of technology, control mechanisms, and close monitoring. River action plans.

Major re-forestation programmes associated with big dams. Narmada 100;1; Rajasthan Canal, 500;1. Wild life sanctuaries and catchment area treatment and upgradation of degraded natural forests.

Aim at sustainability. As in economics, so in environmental planning, front-loading may be a necessary, even inevitable strategy.

9. Displacement and enviromental degradation have a bearing on human rights. Whole question of R&R, especially of tribals.

Previously, planners were unaware, uncaring, outcomes unsupervised. Now, well along learing curve. Mandate to ensure DPs are at least as well off if not better off. This now carefully programmed, funded, staffed, monitored, reviewed.

Land for land mistaken. Land not available. Employment/security through education, trainning, income generation, situ R&R through area and community development, transparency, public hearings, stakeholder participation.

Need a problem solving approach.

10. Alternative, distress migration, Malthusian refugees, with no safety net. Underpriviledged communities, including tribals, are moving out from un-dammed catchments in droves for lack of development and opportunity. Cannot leave them prisoners of an imagined arcadia, as hunter-gatherer, denied not only opportunity but the right to choose to turn away from hunger, illiteracy and ill health while they could be enabled to enjoy better lives even while preserving theiry culture, social networks, language and way of life.

With pressing demands for food, on and off-farm employment, drinking water, and municipal and industrial water supplies for a rapidly urbanising India, we must harness water through all means - not excluding big dams. Water shortages and deteriorating water quality threaten whole regions and disadvantaged segments. Political and social stability can be endangered by water crises. The displaced must be well taken care of and their trauma addressed with compassion. But the rights of tens and hundreds of millions of others cannot be held to ransom either. They too have the right to water, to food, to employment to a better future.

These majority-millions are not priviledged elites. They represent the bulk of the poor and large sections of the tribal population. More than half of urban India is but a refugee camp for the rural poor - seeking a second chance. None can ignore their human rights.

Development must mean growth with equity for all. Yes, things can and do go wrong and some things can be done better. That is as true of big dams as for everything else.