A B Pandya
Recently, the Sardar Sarovar Project was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The event brought back focus on the project and its impacts on various spheres of developmental dialogue. The project, therefore, represents a true watershed moment in the history of independent India where the technological and managerial challenges of achieving the goals and the approaches towards the social aspects of the development were under intense public scrutiny.
The project has been a dream for several generations spanning over almost three-quarters of the century. The State of Gujarat was no stranger to crippling droughts impacting even the folklore and history. Even the modern literature is full of works like “Manavi-Ni-Bhavai” remembering great drought of Vikrami Samvat 1956 (Chhapanio dukal), meaning drought of 56. The statistics reveal that out of a total of 38100 Million Cubic meters (MCM) of surface water annually available for the state of Gujarat, South Gujarat accounts for 35700 MCM with the rest of regions of Saurashtra, Kuchh and North Gujarat aggregating to 14400 MCM. Even in South Gujarat, Narmada brings in 33575 MCM of basin virgin yield annually. Thus, it is evident that the resolution of water crisis lies in harnessing Narmada waters. This has now been proven and put into action with the untiring efforts of the people of Gujarat and engineers and administrators at the State and Union Government levels. Judiciary has also played no small part in rationalising various points of view and sifting the chaff from the grain. It is, therefore, a truly national achievement having brought the
project to fruition.
Watershed Moment
The project though conceived in 1946, could be commenced after a long haul of technical and judicial reviews culminating in the award of Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal in 1979. The tribunal awarded use of 9 Million Acre Feet (11,101 MCM) of Narmada water for use to Gujarat, which is 32.14 per cent of the dependable yield of the basin, the rest being allocated to Madhya Pradesh (65.18 per cent), Maharashtra (0.89%) and Rajasthan (1.79%). Even though, Rajasthan was not a basin state, the areas adjoining Gujarat having no other source, were considered in the national interest. Thus, it truly reflects the equitable distribution of resources to all (spirit of “Sahnavavtu Sahnau Bhunaktu”). A true manifestation of unity as envisaged by Sardar Patel.
The project is an ideal multipurpose project catering to the food-water-energy security triad to the beneficiary areas. There are unique features of this project not replicated elsewhere. The dam was built with extensive considerations of seismicity as Narmada and Sone represent the divide between Deccan plateau and Indo-Gangetic plains. Similarly, handling floods of almost 88000 Square Kilometers catchment was another challenge and the designs for the spillway and energy dissipation arrangements needed skills of hydrologists of the eminence of the country as well as modelling skills of our laboratories. The dam, as finally built, has a height of 163 meters from the deepest foundations and with a length of 1210 meters. From the consideration of the quantity of concrete used for its construction, is second voluminous in the world and height wise is the third highest dam in the country. The spillway is capable of handling an unprecedented flood of 83,000 Cubic meters per second, which is termed as Maximum Probable Flood. The reservoir has a live storage capacity of 4.75 MAF (5859 MCM). The project has the first and only underground hydroelectric powerhouse of Gujarat generating 1200 MW and another Canal Head Power House generating 250 MW. Construction of underground powerhouse involved tackling geological surprises of weak zones between competent rocks and were handled jointly by the designers at Central Water Commission and construction engineers of Gujarat. The project provides for 18 Lakh Hectares of irrigation potential annually across Gujarat and 2.46 Lakh Hectares in Rajasthan out of its own share provided through the main canal of Sardar Sarovar project. The main canal at 40,000 Cubic feet per second carrying capacity, is the largest so far with a length of 458 Km in Gujarat.
The dam has a unique feature of staged construction inflicted upon it by various disputes and judicial reviews. The dam has been constructed in 9 stages spanning from the year 1995 to 2017 equivalent to growth of a person from a newborn to a sprightly youth. This posed many challenges of passing floods over the partially complete dam and maintaining the integrity of the energy dissipation arrangements. Also, the work had to be carried out during hot summer months leading to many unique techniques of hot weather concreting which is considered a challenge for a mass concrete dam. The execution of a large canal in desertic soils was a big challenge as the soils were very loose and do not provide stability to the banks apart from being highly erodible. The canal also crosses some of the highly braided rivers of Gujarat which requires innovative methods for constructing the structures. Being also the carrier of drinking water supplies to about 9633 villages and 131 towns, it has to remain full for most of the year while carrying different discharges, to my knowledge, such design has not yet been executed in other projects in India. Another experiment of generating solar energy by utilising vacant space over the top of canal providing 10 MW of solar power is the first in the world.
Quenching Rural Thirst
Perhaps the biggest immediate impact of the project has been its capacity to provide a highly reliable source of drinking water to parched lands of Saurashtra, Kutch and North Gujarat. The villages and towns in these areas were having chronic shortages of drinking water with most of their sources going dry from March to July. There were instances galore every year of water supplies being restricted to once every third day and that too for a 30-minute slot on which multiple families sharing a single connection had to survive. Poor quality of drinking water had led to fluorosis and other water-borne diseases. Implementation of water grid network of pipelines off-taking from various points along the canal network has covered entire areas and have proven to be unfailing sources of drinking water removing the frequent conflicts amongst the urban populations and agriculturists for water. Reduction of social tensions on account of improved availability of water is a subject to be studied.
Implementing a large canal network over 18 lakh hectares is no mean task. The work involves meticulous planning and design for ensuring that the water indeed flows up to the farm gate. Very detailed surveys of each field and then providing inputs for construction is a big challenge and has been handled at a breakneck rate of about 1 lakh hectares per year jointly by WAPCOS (I) Ltd under the Union Ministry of Water Resources and Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd engineers and technicians. Rajasthan has also developed its large command with using micro-irrigation technologies for water use efficiency in agriculture.
A Giant Step Ahead
There are many other benefits that the project has generated by way of hydropower generation which has paid off the cost of dam even before it was complete. There are innumerable non-quantifiable benefits which will require a comprehensive performance study in near future.
The other watershed achievement has been proving the success of development plans in the teeth of opposition from environmental and social extremist ideologies. With a substantial number of population affected by submergence, (though beneficiary outnumbers the displaced persons by 7:1) a fear psychosis was created at the international level and the entire water resources development requirements were sought to be turned on its head by advocating impractical solutions. Under the influence of activism World Commission on Dams report was attempted to be pushed on the world by leveraging financial heft of the international funding agencies. Exemplary rehabilitation strategies ratified by the highest courts of the country have proved the fallacy of these anti developmental arguments and international financing agencies have been forced to rebalance their priorities. In this area, the Sardar Sarovar dam has truly provided a yeomen service to the rational developmental dialogue. I have little doubt that as the time progresses, the rationality of our decision-makers and engineers will become clearer and cassandras will be proven wrong by the prosperity and well-being of our country ensured in no small measure by Sardar Sarovar Project as well as the Narmada water scheme as envisaged in the award of the tribunal.
Present day dialogue for development is heavily loaded against the time-tested solutions and is truly pseudo secular. The solutions are pre-judged without providing them with a sound basis of engineering sciences like hydrology, geotechnics and biological processes. Many predictions about the ill effects are made without understanding that the underlying causative factors are not present in the country. A case in point is the hoopla created for methane emission, reservoir-induced seismicity and so on and so forth. All such arguments were advanced against Sardar Sarovar Project and the project has emerged out of the “Agni Pariksha” unscathed like Sita. With the success of the project, our opinion makers and leaders will surely feel enthused to replicate them further and bring the vision of a prosperous Bharat to reality. The souls of planners and designers long past will then rest in peace.
(The writer is former chairman, Central Water Commission & Ex-Officio Secretary to Government of India)
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