The movement started by Medha Patkar to oppose the Sardar Sarovar Project is raising its pitch as the government okays construction of the last phase of the dam over the Narmada.
The 25-year-old story of the anti-dam movement of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), which saw the rise of many an activist, the foremost being Medha Patkar, is moving to its denouement.
The Centre has chosen to ignore the warnings of its own committee, led by Devendra Pandey, which has forbidden states to go ahead with more construction where just 17 metres remain to be built to take the dam to its full height of 138.68 metres.
The committee accused the states of non-compliance with conditions related to building canals, rehabilitation, and treatment of catchment areas, and forbade them from further work before these matters were attended to. But the states, especially Gujarat, have been celebrating the clearance they have got from the environment sub-group of the Narmada Control Authority, under the water resources ministry.
The end of work on the dam could be the end of the movement as well as the many villages now perched on the hills near the dam. A total of 195 villages are in the submergence area and hardly 5,000 of the 35,000 families are known to have moved to rehabiltation sites. Also, many families in Madhya Pradesh have not accepted the rehabilitation offer. So, protests from NBA are getting louder. It is moving on foot from its base in Badwani to begin an indefinite agitation in Indore from April 11.
How do 17 metres make a difference to people in areas covered by the dam? NBA says that once the dam is built fully, the pending issues will be submerged and its protest will lose relevance. The issues include compensation to over 40,000 people in Madhya Pradesh, construction of irrigation canals in Gujarat and treatment of catchment areas. Not the least is the fact that the water that will fill the reservoir will have no takers, as Gujarat does not have enough canals.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said that while 88 per cent water was meant for irrigation, Sardar Sarovar Nigam Ltd diverted three million acre feet (MAF) water for drinking and industrial purposes, and only 1.3 MAF was used for irrigation. CAG said the dam was meant to irrigate 1.83 million hectares, the potential for only 341,000 hectares had been built, of which only 120,000 hectares was being irrigated due to lack of minor and sub-minor canals.
These figures don’t differ from what leaders like Patkar have been saying. While Patkar says that not more than 10 per cent villages have got water supply, CAG says water is going to areas that have abundance of water, ignoring drought-prone ones like Saurashtra and Kutch.
The Gujarat government is eager to use the dam as a trophy to adorn its founding year anniversary this year, Patkar and her supporters say. When Gujarat does so, the Congress would not like to be left behind.
There are, however, questions about the rate at which the cost of the dam has increased over the years. The cost of building irrigation canals alone went up from the projected Rs 4,500 crore to Rs 75,000 crore, according to the Planning Commission.
But the counter-argument is that NBA reflects the absence of a system to ensure that dams are not used to serve political purposes but to address human needs and hence all the humanitarian issues, including rehabilitation, are addressed promptly before the first nail is hammered in.
