Watered down solutions

can be modelled and the water level measured. You have to survey the soil, go down to the different water levels, measure the rain, find the drains and count the trees as they guzzle water. If you have the facts the computer does the rest, and we have done it thrice.

The first time it was the Sardar Sarovar dam. The activists said it would not reach Kutch and Rajasthan and cause water-logging. We built a system where the farmer would decide his crops to maximise profits, with the surface water available. If he fell short, he would use the ground water. This was the first time in India that joint or conjunctive use of water was built into the design of the engineering and delivery systems, based on profitability considerations. The project reached Rajiv Gandhi’s desk and, fed by his environment secretary Seshan, he was initially critical. But, Rajiv was actually deeply impressed with the fact that groundwater monitoring had begun in the then Mahi Narmada doab. He strongly supported the project. That time round, the model had won.

In Ken Betwa, the idea bombed. It is an area where the soil is unsuitable for flood irrigation. Cotton is grown on black soil, which just cannot take flooding. It is the oilseed paradise of India, but oilseeds cannot take flooding either and need some water in stress periods if the rains fail. A civil society group that analysed the interlinking of rivers project argued for controlled irrigation. But the project was designed initially for paddy which does not grow here, and the irrigation engineers would not depart from their favourite flood uncontrolled irrigation model. When the critique was presented, the civil servant who headed the water sector then dutifully critiqued the group but gave indications that their arguments would be looked into. He was transferred back to Hyderabad and then nothing happened.

Michigan University began studying the water impact of cola plants in India, under civil society pressure. TERI was called in and Pachauri told me to head a team to push and give the work its requisite autonomy. We studied projects in each agro-climatic region in India where production was on and examined outcomes against the highest standards. Where water was abundant, there were expectedly few problems. A water processing plant is a very small factor, and if the usual precautions are taken there should be little to complain about. But one of the plants was in a dry region, Kaladhera in Rajasthan. The team went into this again with a hydrological model of the aquifer. The area showed the typical profile of water stress in distressed areas since the ’90s. Cropping intensities were rising, the newer technologies needed water in the stress period and water levels were going down. But modelling suggested that, under these conditions in restricted aquifers, industrial activities also mattered in the water crisis. These models are very data-intensive and difficult to work on. Results can always be improved. But with the time and resources available, the best was done.

So improvements should always be attempted, but decisions should be taken with the best that we have, and the study had provided a basis for discussion more than anything else. Coca-Cola appointed a CEO of Indian origin who had a totally different perspective on the company’s role. They have now declared that this kind of modelling will be a part of all their future plants and they will use it for water-related activities in existing plants. As a water man, I walk away happy.

The writer is a former Union minister for power, planning and science, and was vice-chancellor of JNU, Delhi

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