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dam-l LS: Gujarat focuses on Narmada as answer to drought

Times of India,  Thursday 11 May 2000

                    Gujarat focuses on Narmada as answer to
                    drought

                    The Times of India News Service

                    NEW DELHI: For Gujarat the severe drought has 
served one purpose - it
                    has brought the focus back on the Narmada project. 
Making use of the
                    widespread media coverage of water scarcity, the 
state has made a plea for
                    ending the controversy over the height of the dam 
and other issues so that
                    there is enough water when the drought comes 
visiting next time.

                    ``If the work on the dam is allowed from tomorrow, 
water will be flowing
                    through the canals next summer,'' Gujarat's 
minister for water resources Jay
                    Narayan Vyas said here on Wednesday.

                    Dealing with various dam-related issues with slide 
projections, Vyas said the
                    state government had constructed the canals making 
use of the time when
                    the project work had been held up because of 
judicial intervention.

                    He, in fact, hinted of a conspiracy , claiming 
certain forces were keen to see
                    the green revolution did not spread to newer 
areas. ``The anti-Narmada
                    propaganda might have something to do with India's 
emergence as the
                    largest producer of vegetables, fruits and milk; 
some foreign powers are
                    worried about future markets,'' he remarked.

                    Dismissing the view that India should not go in 
for new dams since the
                    existing dams have been decommissioned the world 
over, the minister
                    pointed out that between 1912 and 1999 the US 
constructed 5577 large
                    dams and decommissioned only 465 of them.

                    Vyas said the amount of the Narmada water that had 
flown into the Arabian
                    Sea in the past year would have been enough to 
prevent the current drought
                    in the state. At a time when water was being 
brought from the other parts of
                    the country by trains and sea, the debate over the 
dam should end. ``We
                    cannot afford this luxury,'' he remarked.

                    Vyas said the arid Kuchchh area would directly 
benefit from the Narmada
                    project which will irrigate 1127 sq km of the 
district. ``All the inhabited
                    villages of Kuchchh will get drinking water from 
the Narmada project, they
                    are precisely the villages which are facing the 
worst drought conditions.''