Water

An Initiative Indeed!

Arabinda Ghose

For much too long this vital issue has remained neglected even though ominous signs have been there for a long time now. A sound beginning has been made but one wonders why a subject like water that has been so close to the heart of the Finance Minister for more than a decade took so long to take off.

A significant initiative towards financing large water resources development schemes through a corporate organization was announced by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram during the budget speech he had  livered in Parliament on Feb.29.

The announcement, which received only limited exposure in news bulletins of both the print and electronic media, will initially receive Rs.100 crores from the Union Government, is expected to receive contributions from the State Governments as also financial institutions.

"It is our intentions to mobilize the very large resources that will be required to fund major and medium irrigation projects" the Minister said, adding "I hope to be able to incorporate Integrated Water Resources Financial Corporation (IWRFC) as a company soon".

This major step towards mobilization of resources for funding irrigation projects in the country is the third one taken by Mr. Chidambaram during the last 12 years. The first was in 1996, when he was the Finance Minister in the H. D. Deve Gowda –led National Front Government .He had then introduced the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) which had actually revived the irrigation projects in the States languishing for want of funds. In fact, Irrigation Engineers at the Centre and the States had thanked the Finance Minister for launching this programme because by the middle of the 1990s, all that the States could spare for irrigation works was, more or less, salaries of their employees in the Department of Irrigation.

The second was in 2004, when he had joined the Dr. Manmohan Singh Government as Finance Minister in May delivering the budget speech on July 8 that year, he had announced the undertaking of a programme, restoration of about one million water bodies. Launching the programme, the Finance Minister had stated:

"I now turn to one of my big dreams. Water is the lifeline of civilization. We have been warned that the biggest crisis that the world will face in the 21^st century will be the crisis of water .Water is indeed a renewable resource but in any given year, it is not inexhaustible. The crisis of water has affected the lives of millions of our fellow citizens in some cities, whole households keep awake to receive one or two buckets of water past midnight. In rural areas, the girl child is often pulled out of school in order to fetch water. I am deeply   concerned about the impending crisis. I, therefore, propose an ambitious scheme. Through the ages, Indian agriculture has been sustained by national and man-made water bodies such as lakes, tanks, ponds and similar structures. It has been estimated that there are more than a million such structures and about 500,000 are used for irrigation. Many of them have fallen into disuse. Many of them have accumulated silt. Many require urgent repairs.

"I, therefore, propose to launch a massive scheme to repair, renovate, and restore all the water bodies that are directly linked to agriculture. In the current   year (2004-05) we shall begin with pilot projects in at least five districts, and we shall select at least one districts in each of the five regions in the country. The estimated cost is Rs.100 crores"

The Minister had expressed the view then that funds would not be a constraint. For example, he had stated then, the Life Insurance Corporation of India invested, on an average, Rs. 3000/- crores per year in water-related programmes. As of now, multilateral funding has commenced or this programme with its ambit enlarged several Times.

This programme, one might add,   is similar to one of the extensive tank irrigation systems in vogue in many areas of the rain-starved southern Peninsula. In Tamilnadu, the "ery" system of irrigation had been prevalent before the advent of the British. Even today, one may find a massive "ery" system in operation at Chengalpattu, more than a hundred kilometers south of Chennai.

Under the AIBP programme mentioned earlier, a total of Rs 21,739.90   crores have been forwarded to the States till 2006-07 (provisional figure). During the year 2007-08, the amount so disbursed has been Rs.3127.50 crores till January 9, 2008. A total of 4641.30   thousand hectares of land has been brought under irrigation till March 31, 2007 under this scheme.

Under the "dream "   scheme launched by Mr. P. Chidambaram from January 2005, water bodies having command areas  of more than one hectare and up to 2000 ha. were included under the scheme in one or two districts in every State. The scheme was approved in 26 districts of 15 States. Central share of Rs.179.30 crores has been released to the States till November 2007 covering 1098 water bodies. The physical work for restoration has been completed for 733 water bodies and work is under progress in the remaining 365 water bodies.

Later, World Bank assistance for this scheme was sought and a loan agreement has been signed with Tamil Nadu for Rs.2182 crores to restore 5,763 water bodies having a cultivated command area (CCA) of four lakh hectares. The Rs. 835/- crore Andhra Pradesh Community-based Tank Management Project was signed in June 2007 for restoration of 3000 water bodies involving a CCA of 2.50 lakh hectares. The project for Karnataka was signed for Rs.259 crores with the World Bank for restoration of 1,225 water bodies with a CCA of 0.52 lakh hectares. Proposals for Orissa and West Bengal have been referred to the World Bank.