sardar sarovar dam

SARDAR SAROVAR DAM

NARMADA,Narmada is one of the most sacred rivers in India.The Narmada is India's largest westward-flowing river and is the fifth largest river of india and is of immense religious and cultural importance to the people living on its banks.

The Narmada river originates from Amarkantak,a place in Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh. In its 1312 km long journey before joining the Arabian Sea, the Narmada flows through the three states of Madhya Pradesh (MP), Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The mean annual flow of Narmada River is more than combined flow of Ravi, Beas and Satlaj rivers.

The valley of the river Narmada is one of the most fertile places in the world and human civilization is inhibiting there dating from pre-historic times.

This blog is regarding this Narmada valley which is the largest river development project in the world, the Narmada Valley Project, which comprises of construction of thirty large and hundreds of small dams.

1. The foundation stone of the sardar sarovar project was laid down by the late Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on 5th April, 1961 with an ambitious plan which consist of the building of 30 big dams, 135 medium dams and 3000 small dams on the Narmada & its tributaries.

2. This dam will be ranking as the second largest in the world with an aggregate volume of 6.82 million cu.m. water.

3. It is estimated that around 18lakh hectares of land would come into irrigation after the completion of the project which is the highest in the world for any dam.

4. This dam with its spillway discharging capacity of 87,000 cumecs (30.70 lac), will be the third in the world.

5. The Narmada Main Canal (NMC) of the SSP is the largest irrigation lined canal in the world. The total length of NMC is 458 km.This is very important. The canal is the only way through which water at one place can be sent to a distant place.

6. World's biggest cranes are being used in order to lift the tremendous concrete which is being used for this project. This can give u a rough idea of how big this project

Benefits:

1:IRRIGATION-:
The Sardar Sarovar Project will provide irrigation facilities to 17.93 lac ha. of land, covering 3112 villages of 73 talukas in 15 districts of Gujarat. It will also irrigate 75,000 ha. of land in the strategic desert districts of Barmer and Jallore in Rajasthan and 37,500 ha. in the tribal hilly tract of Maharashtra through lift. Now most of this places where this irrigation facilities are going to be provided are drought prone places. Assured water supply will soon make this area drought proof.

2:DRINKING WATER:
The sardar sarovar dam is going to provide water to 45% of total 18144 villages of Gujarat, a whooping number of 18 million people. Water supply requirement of several industries will also be met from the project giving a boost to all-round production.

3.Power Generation.
One of the biggest reason for creating a dam is to generate hydro based electricity and this dam is no exception.On the completion of this project it is estimated to produce around 1200mw of electricity.Out of which the state of Gujarat will get 16 percent,Maharashtra will get 27 and MP will get abt 57 percent of electricity.

Right after the beginning of the construction of the dam,clash between the party states over the sharing of irrigational water and electricity started...A committee was setup under the Chairmanship of late Dr. Khosla to resolve this clash....however just after this clash got over another hurdle came into picture......The displacement and rehabilitation of the people residing in the Narmada valley...

1. The foremost and the biggest controversy about this project is the number of people it requires to migrate from their places...Around 3 lakhs people have to migrate and rehabilitate after the completion of this project which is second highest in the world for any project....

2. This leads to the formation of the Famous NGO NBA i.e. the narmada bachao andolan...under the leadership of Megha patkar...a social worker from maharashtra... This NGO has taken up the responsibility of the tribals staying in the submerged area of
the valley.....

3. The NGO wants the government to completely rehabilate the people before any increase in the height of the dam...It wants the government to provide accomodation,livelihood and equal amount of land to the people who are going to lose their places

4. Another issue taken up by the NBA is about the environmental degradation that will happen due to the cutting of forests...for the creation of dam..and due to the submergence of the river...

Now the next point is very important...

5.The whole area where this sardar sarovar dam is going to be created lies into seismic zone Five.....which means that it is quite prone to earthquake....A dam of such huge magnitude can definetely create some geological shifts and the weight of water can definetely lead to a possible earthquake....An example of this given by the NBA is the Machu Dam in Gujarat, where the dam collapsed during an earthquake and drowned 2,000 people in the adjacent town of Morvi.


RECENT CONTROVERSY :

On March 8, 2006, the Narmada Control Authority(NCA) decided to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam by 11 metres, that is from the current 110.64 metres to 121.92 metres ... which leads to the current controversy....In late March i.e on the 28th of march 2006, Patkar, 52, began a hunger strike that lasted for nearly 20 days, which she broke only after the Supreme Court order.The supreme court order the concerned states to provide rehabilatation as per the guidelines of the NCA....


FINAL CONCLUSION :

In course of 50 years of planned economic development of our country, we have taken tremendous strides in agriculture sector. Our country which had to depend upon imports to feed even a population of 35 crores when we became independent, has attained a position of self sufficiency with exportable surplus even with a population of over 1 billion (102 crores). This has been made possible by harnessing waters of major rivers of our country.


Availability of energy - another core requirement of economic development and also a universal input for better living - can be a serious handicap in raising the standard of living in a country like India which is rather poorly endowed in fossil fuel reserves. Even at its present low level of consumption (per capita electricity consumed in India is 430 Kwh as compared to 12300 in USA. Even China is much ahead with 720 units per capita).

A matter of equal concern is the sufferings of millions of people residing in water deficit areas. The womenfolk have to walk long distance for minimum requirement of water for drinking and domestic use. This impairs their productive capacity and health. In many of these regions they are forced to use salinity affected, fluoride affected and nitrite affected water. There is also human distress in terms of poverty, unemployment and migration on account of non-availability of minimum water supply. Water deficiency also aggravates environmental degradation, ingress of salinity and lack of green cover.

Every development project has its cost. During the days of Industrial and Technological revolutions, the mills of economic development of western world ground fast and fine, not caring either for human rights or for ecological consequences. With accumulation of wealth and affluence, finer sentiments of human rights and environment are now surfacing. And what is good for G-7 has to be good for the rest of the World! So our urbanite elite have also adopted human and environmental issues as the State of the Art evaluation angle.

This is because, for countries of Asia and Africa, where basic amenities of life such as healthy drinking water, minimum food, fuel and lighting are yet a far cry for large sections of population, the cost of non-implementation of a project which is worth Rs.21,000 crore right now perpetuate these miseries! How can we ignore it!

Sardar Sarovar Project is essentially a vehicle for taking plentiful waters of Narmada basin which are to-day flowing down the sea, to the water starved regions of Saurashtra, Kachchh, North Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Like the project of Aswan of Egypt, a developing country, Sardar Sarovar Project has also become a focus of a concerted international anti dam campaign, carried out by its local loyal supporters, resorting to disinformation intended to create confusion in public mind. As has happened in the case of Aswan Dam in Egypt, time will vindicate the wisdom of planners and leaders who have helped in pushing ahead with this project with determination and commitment.

And as Development Economists often say, a country is poor, not because it does not have resources, but because it does not have either the WILL or ability to manage its resources.