A Century-old Problem, Still Unsolved
Harness technology to meet the growing water needs of Tamil Nadu
Harness technology to meet the growing water needs of Tamil Nadu
The Supreme Court asked Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu for six days from October 1 onwards. Many Kannadigas were extremely upset with it. Its earlier order led some people to riot in Bangalore. Is it such a disaster as they seem to think?
In six days, Karnataka would have released 3.272727 TMC. If it had to release that much water throughout the year, it would come to 200 million TMC. I reckon that Karnataka’s reservoirs have some 410 TMC just now; so the projected release would come to about a half of its stocks. Over a half of the Cauvery basin is in Tamil Nadu. Was the Supreme Court too generous to Tamil Nadu?
It is not on the basis of simple data. There is also some urgency. This is the time when the samba crop is being planted in Tamil Nadu. (This samba has nothing to do with the famous dance that one sees gorgeous Brazilian women do on the streets of Rio de Janeiro in its carnival. It is a small-grained rice which is popular in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. It has to be planted now, or the opportunity would be missed for this year.)
Meanwhile, a committee appointed by Supreme Court is touring the valley listening to farmers and other interested parties. Their refrain is unvarying: they urgently need more water. There is not enough water for the needs of both states; so water has to be rationed – and has been rationed for almost a century. One would have thought that both states would have got enough experience in rationing by now; but still they keep squabbling. We may find statistical solutions for their problem that look fair, but they do not to their victims. Just look at Bangalore Municipal Corporation’s rationing system; most of Bangalore gets water for a few hours a couple of times a week.
The semi- judicial solution in force is typical of the way our system tackles serious quarrels; but it is obviously not working too well. It is easy to work out quotas for the states on the basis of their population and so on, but that is no longer adequate. Tamil Nadu has industrialised rapidly, while Karnataka has developed the information technology industry which has attracted techies by the thousands from the rest of India. They are used to working in cool air released by water-drinking air conditioners, and despite that they must have a bath every day. Water may be rationed between two states by means of dams and sluices; but neither state has the will or the technical means to ration water to individual techies or steam engines. More dams are not the answer. If one travels along the East coast, one finds that most of the rivers bring little water to the sea even in the monsoon; most of the water is captured and used, or evaporates.
The biggest savings in water can be made by tackling its biggest consumer, agriculture. The most waterintensive crops are cotton, rice and sugarcane. If our rulers had any sense, they would remove all agricultural import restrictions; and they would charge for river and canal water. We would certainly save much water by importing water-intensive products. And they would introduce a stiff price for water.
But that would not meet the needs of Tamil Nadu, which are mostly industrial. There is no optimum solution for it, but the best practical solution may be membrane distillation or deionisation of seawater with solar energy. The Tamilians should experiment and develop these technologies instead of wrecking Udupi restaurants; if they develop them successfully, they will be able to sell them all over the world. ~
It is easy to work out (water) quotas for the states on the basis of their population and so on but that is no longer adequate