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General Forum: NRI - Information | | WATER ISSUES OF TELANGANA | |
| Don't give us volumes internet very costly.
15 $ 24 hours.
Posted by: Mr. M Kumar N At: 22, Aug 2003 3:01:32 PM IST
No comments?
Posted by: Mr. Konu Venkat At: 22, Aug 2003 2:59:39 PM IST
Dr. Ravi Menneni
Water is not only essential for the body but also to shape an individual and a community?s mindset. As it was said in the Vedas, the thoughts of the one who lives by the sea are so different from the free flowing thinking of the one who lives by the riverside. They bubble with enthusiasm.
We know that all the great civilizations were born in the laps of the rivers like Nile, Tigris & Euphrates, and Indus. It is because of this immortal bond between the waters and our lives we admire and adore them with such love and devotion, we call them our mothers and we name our daughters. (With a notable exception of a male river Brahmaputra.)
Having said about the philosophical and historical importance of the great river systems, let us think about the ones we have in India. We have three types of rivers. Those, which flow from north to south originating from the Himalayas, will have water round the year due to rains in the rainy season and from the melting snowcaps in the summer. Ganga, Brahmaputra, Ravi, Beas, Sutlej and other North Indian rivers are of this type.
Narmada and Tapthi flow from east to west emanating from the Vindhya mountains they have a large catchment area though the peak flow period is limited mainly to the rainy season. There is a great effort and huge investment since the ?80s to tame these waters in Narmada Nigam. Godavari, Krishna, Thunga, Badra, Penna and Kaveri are the rivers, which flow from West to east because the Deccan plateau is elevated on the west and sloping towards east. Originating in the western ghats these rivers more or less manage to have waters during most of the time due to the length and breadth of the monsoons.
GOLDEN AGE FOR TELENGANA
The best phase of development for telangana so far was under the kakatiya kings. Every village in telangana probably bears some sort of their imprint in temples and talabs. One should only visit to appreciate the mastery in the work of temples and lakes built by them like Ramapppa and pakala.With the limited technology available to them.They have obviously made their best efforts to build check dams, barrages and canals for irrigation and temples for devotion. The art and culture, the architecture everything shows the prosperity and creativity of the society thriving at that time. When one considers all the tanks built in each and every village during their period I am sure there is no more great efforts done after that until independence. When kakateeyas lost to bahamanees that was the end of the golden era for the region. Technically it was under the alien roan until P.V.Narasimha rao became the chief mininster. So the people of other religions or regions ruled this region for almost seven hundred years 1250 to 1970.
JUST BEFORE THE INDEPENDENCE
Muslims having robbed the people and destroyed the temples in the earlier days after the kakatiyas had to realize that there will be nothing to rob unless there is some wealth developed. So they too tried to develop some pockets of lands. Nizamsagar in Nizamabad and Mahaboob nahar in Medak district are examples. After the squeeze for about 700 years post kakatiya period telangana has become so unattractive along with semi arid regions of marathwada and rocky terrains of Bidar and Gulbarga was left out by the British to be ruled by the Nizam under a regular tax sharing agreement. This has further kept the region out of the light.
It is a great irony that the great rivers of south India, Godavari and Krishna flow through this region and still is underdeveloped. Nizam at the end of his career has commissioned a British engineer to survey the feasibility of a big dam on Godavari who has advised him to build a dam near the present Nizamabad, Maharastra border upstream to the present Sriram sagar Project with an estimated irrigation potential of 45 lakh acres covering almost the whole of the northern telangana in Medak, Nizamabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar and parts of Nalgonda. Had this been materialized we would have appreciated the Nizam of Hyderabad whatever his motives were in doing so.
POST INDIPENDENCE
We should appreciate the efforts and understanding of Jawaharlal Nehru in building the temples of modern India as he used to address the big dams, which have helped us to achieve the green and grain revolution. But in that too the telangana region has been left out due to the lack of a visionory leadership. We had no leader of substance to represent our issues. When Nehru made it a point to start a big dam on every major river in India two projects were initiated one each on Godavari and Krishna. Though both of them were started on a similar note the partisan politics of the then chief minister Kasu Brahmananda Reddy became apparent as Sriram sagar project took a back seat and Nagarjunasagar project received all of the attention, funding and state support due to the fact that this dam will irrigate his constituency, his district and his region.
When it came to the SRSP it has brought the site of the dam further downstream, reduced the height of the reservoir, brought the canals closer to the river. All these maneuvers brought the cost down but drastically reduced the area under irrigation bringing it down from the potential 40 lakh acres to 18 lakh acres. Even the works on this stymied project were run on a snails pace that so far not more than 5 lakh acres were given for water while the Nagarjunasagar was completed to its full potential well a generation ahead.
THRUST TO QUENCH THE THIRST
With the two great rivers flooding our yards every rainy season we continue to suffer to find drinking water every summer. This is very much apparent in the regions of Aleru, Jangam, Cherial, Mahaboobnagar and Sangareddy regions. To compensate for the conceded potential of the SRSP technocrats from the REC Warangal have proposed a high level flood flow canal. (This would not have been necessary had we built a canal at a maximum height to exploit the greatest potential as we have noted earlier.) This proposal was presented to Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1983. She has promised in an emotionally charged speech at Jangam to make this canal a reality. Unfortunately not very long after this she was assassinated.
This proposed flood flow canal which will shoot out from the SRSP itself will divert the waters which would otherwise go waste in the rainy season. This will take a course at a higher altitude than the present Kakatiya canal and on its way will comprise of three reservoirs, one near Metpally on Peddavagu, another at Manvada village on Maner river and the third one at Renigunta village on Mohithummeda vagu. After that it was proposed to pump the waters 2to 3 meters to a higher plane to make way for Jangam and Cheriyal. This plan has since been modified two or three times and latest I hear is traveling above Siricilla town avoids building a reservoir on Maaner by making a tube or tunnel transport above or below the river bed. This will effectively quench the thirst of the most drought prone areas of the region and irrigating another 5 to 6 lakh acres of land in Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda and Medak districts. This along with the left branch the Sri Shailam and other minor irrigation projects relevant in every district and the proper maintenance of the older tanks in the villages will definitely and effectively alleviate the poverty and ignorance of the region. Since our lives are so engrossed in the occupation of agriculture only when we got contented with it we will concentrate on other finer things of life like education and industrialization.
* What has been done so far?
Since its conception 16 years ago the plan has only been on paper. Nothing concrete happened so far.Till the end of the 80s the state under NTR was always at loggerheads with the centre. Moreover he was so obsessed with his pet project Telugu Ganga that he has no time for any thing. 89 to 94 we had three chieftains who obviously had no time beyond their personal occupations. 95 to 99 Babu must be waiting for a big hand from the world bank or a big foot from the people. In any case he will wait for the pentium 4s to build a dam and a dream for him.
* Why only telangana?
Just because we are born there! We have experienced the pains and pleasures of the land and the people. We are morally obligated to it make it rich and respectable. We have to fight in terms of small geopolitical configurations because as a nation we have not evolved a national policy on equitable distribution of its water resources. Theoritically the best policy would be to utilize the rivers to the hilt not allowing any waters to go waste in to the seas when we need them on the land.
* THE FUTURE! Ganga Kaveri Link Canal
The garland canal as it was known and popularised by Dr.K.L.Rao a former chief engineer of Nagarjunsagar project is a vision to link all the rivers in India from Brahmaputra, Ganga, to Narmada, Tapthi to Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Penna to Kaveri. This will effectively circulate the waters in our land to every nook and corner eliminating the petty squabbles amongst us. But this needs a real heart to pump up the waters from the Gangetic plains above the Vindhya mountains to reach the Deccan plateau. The massive energy needed to lift the huge amounts of water is the major obstacle apart from the political will that we always lack. For the Ganga waters to reach Knyakumari and to make this garland a reality we need Bhageerathian efforts on this land.
Posted by: Mr. Konu Venkat At: 21, Aug 2003 7:13:37 PM IST
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