Water is so much essential for all living beings. Without water thinking of agriculture is highly impossible, as even grass won't grow on earth. However rich the oil producing countries are by getting oil wherever they dig, they too have to depend on others for water.

Economically sound country like Singapore has to follow a process chart for water management. Our strategy is ambiguous to have a proper and careful consideration of water management.

When water is shared from a river, certain points need attention. The average normal flow of water in the river in Giga litres and the percentage of current flow in Giga litres are to be taken while determining the distribution. To get the due share over the current flow we need to build the ethics throughout the community on water sharing.

After Independence, the ruling parties adapted sensible economic reforms by taking iron handed measures like abolishing the payment of compensation to all the erstwhile kings and nationalising all major banks. They put proper inroads to agriculture by constructing major dams for irrigation. But one thing they missed or neglected was not paying attention to the floods. Flooding in India is considered to be common. It is well known to us the aftermath effects of this natural outburst. Untold miseries like human loss and property damages are the end result of the floods. A large amount of Government's exchequer is being utilised constantly for relief measures instead of plugging the leakage once for all.

One side there is flood due to unprecedented flow of water in the river and the other side is water scarcity due to not enough flow of water in the river. The wise thinking to overcome the bad effects of the two sides is to link the rivers. By doing this, the emerging flood is diverted to a river which is having only a lean flow of water. So this strategy can be adapted by linking the Ganges from north to the Cauvery in the south. We know the surplus water in the Ganges causing floods and resulting lot of damages. The surplus water enters into the sea without any use whereas the normal flow of water in Cauvery restricts the release of water to the concerned farmers who are also depending on the same river to raise their crops.

When linking the Ganges to Cauvery the farmers who request for water will get the water uninterruptedly as the constant flow of water in Cauvery won't allow dams to store more than it's capacity.

By nationalising the rivers the Government will have a strong hold on good control of water distribution. The world famous Nile River in African continent passing through many countries is a good example for the water distribution among countries. When many countries are sharing water from one river without controversies, why don't we make it happen in India among States by linking the rivers to share water. Certainly this project will solve all the problems of irrigation as well as the need of drinking water.

We view through the lens of optimism, we could also see many other benefits to be harvested. In India we link south and north & east and west by national highways, Indian Airlines, and Indian Railways. The linkage between Ganges and Cauvery will provide one more link as National waterways. These waterways could be used to float cruises and thereby transport people and goods from one place to other.

Other benefits like fisheries, production of electricity by using the hydel project techniques etc could be viewed upon. The linkage between Ganges and Cauvery will turn numerous hectares of arid land into fertile land and also provide drinking water facilities to the adjacent areas.

I hope the Indian Government is having a serious consideration over this matter following the bitter experiences they faced over the distribution of water and floods. Once the blue print is started giving materialisation then we can apply the same yardstick for further linking of other rivers of similar nature. Though sceptical on spectrum of belief let us be confident enough that this project won't be a mirage forever.

S Sankara Subramanian
Melbourne,
Australia

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