Alternatives to the

Narmada Dam
Presentation on Community Water Solutions
Session 5.3
Rivers for Life 3

Shripad Dharmadhikary,
Manthan Adhyayan
Kendra, India
The Narmada Valley
30 Large Dams,
135 Medium
Dams,
3000 “Small”
Dams
The Sardar Sarovar
Project
SSP - Basic Features
„ Dam in Gujarat, Submergence in
Other 2 states
„ 1450 MW, 1.8 m Ha, Drinking
water to several thousand villages
„ Drought prone areas is the
justification
„ Affected Areas Include Tribal, hilly
areas and non-tribal plains
„ 245 villages, 43000 families
affected by submergence alone
Major Criticisms
„ Displacement – No possibility of
Resettlement
„ Massive Environmental Impacts
„ Many impacts not studied
„ Cost / Benefit studies inadequate
„ Benefits would go to the richest and best
areas; needy areas left out
„ Alternatives not explored
„ People not involved
Dam is the Only Solution, Says
Government
„ 50, out of 62 talukas of Gujarat, to benefit from Narmada
irrigation suffer from fundamental resource backwardness -
partially or wholly - like drought proneness .... For these
fundamentally backward 50 talukas, Narmada Project is the only
hope for productive employment generation and upgrading
standard of living.

„ Suggestions like water harnessing, small dams, watershed

development etc. often flaunted by anti dam activists which may
look deceptively simple, become totally irrelevant and grossly
inadequate to meet such situations and for such arid areas for
which transfer of water from surplus regions can only provide a
real and lasting remedy. 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.

„ http://www.sardarsarovardam.org/need.htm (Official Web Site of Project)

Real Solutions
„ Rainwater Harvesting
„ Community Based Decentralised
Water and Soil Management
„ Many such initiatives in Saurashtra
and Gujarat
 Example 1
„ Success Story of Community
Participation for Groundwater
Recharge

Vruksha Prem
Seva Trust,
Upleta,
District Rajkot,
Gujarat
Vruksha Prem Seva
Trust – cont.
„ Since1995
„ Total of 25,000 - 30,000
hectares land

Construction of 21600
check dams covering
15,000 ha land
benefiting around 5500
families.
Construction of 500
underground tanks for
rain water harvesting in
30 villages.
 Vruksha Prem Seva
Trust – Cont.
„ Rise in ground water levels in the project
area.
„ 250% increase in cropped area.
„ 150-275% increase in agriculture yield. „ Drought proofing
„ Self sufficiency in drinking water for two consecutive
requirements drought years.
„ More than 10 times
increase in land
valuation.
„ Improvement in
livestock quality
and manifold
increase in milk
production.
„ Increased
opportunities for
employment and
reduced migration.
 Over All
Study by several experts in prestigious journal Economic
and Political Weekly, Dec 2009:

„ Semi-arid Gujarat has clocked high and steady growth

at 9.6% per year in agricultural state domestic product
since 1999-2000. What has driven this growth?

„ .... Canal-irrigated South and Central Gujarat should

have led Gujarat’s agricultural rally. Instead it is dry
Saurashtra and Kachchh, and North Gujarat that have
been at the forefront. These could not have
performed so well but for the improved availability of
groundwater for irrigation. Arguably, mass-based
water harvesting and farm power reforms have helped
energise Gujarats agriculture.