WHAT IS SARDAR SAROVAR NARMADA PROJECT?

The Narmada Dam Project is a project

involving the construction of a series of large

hydroelectric dams on the Narmada River in

India.

HISTORY OF PROJECT:-

The project was first conceived of in the 1940s by the country's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The project only took form in 1979 as part of a development scheme to increase irrigation and produce hydroelectricity.

World Bank had signed a Loan agreement with GOI of $450 million, signed in May 1985.

Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoE&F) formed Resettlement and Resettlement (R&R) and Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal (NWDT) for the Project. After the formation of these departments the project came in existence.

The project began in 1979 and to be fully complete by 2025.Gujarat Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are the states that are to be benefited.

World Bank withdrew the project in 1993.

OBJECTION FOR NARMADA PROJECT :-

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From the day one, the project is in the controversy. The Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement), which is spearheading the protest, says the project will displace more than 200,000 people apart from damaging the fragile ecology of the region.

NBA activists such as Medha Patkar, Amir Khan, Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra, Arundhiti Roy and other say that the dams will submerge forest farmland, disrupt downstream fisheries and possibly inundate and salinate land along the canals, increasing the prospect of insect-borne diseases.

Some scientists have added to the debate saying the construction of large dams could cause earthquakes.

They say that in a country as disorganised as India, it is likely that the necessary maintenance of these dams may suffer.

But those in favour of the project say that the project will supply water to 30m people and irrigate crops to feed another 20m people.

In what was seen as a major victory for the anti-dam activists, the World Bank withdrew from the Narmada project in 1993.

Several other international financial institutions also pulled out citing human and environmental concerns.

The construction of Sardar Sarovar dam itself was stopped soon afterwards.

FEATURE OR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROJECT:

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A massive undertaking

Farmland will be submerged once the dam is complete

Of the thirty large dams planned on river Narmada, Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) is the largest multipurpose project involved in the construction with a proposed height of 136.5 m.

The multi-purpose project will irrigate more than 18,000 square kilometres, most of it in drought prone areas like Kutch and Saurashtra.

The multi-million dollar project involves the construction of some 3,200 small, medium and large dams on the Narmada river.

Sardar Sarovar project is the first major river valley project which is subjected to exacting environmental conditions imposed by the Government of India at the time of according clearance to this project.

This is also one of the first projects where environmental impact assessment has been undertaken through agencies even when the project was in planning phase.

HEIGHT ISSUES (INVOLVEMENT OF COURT IN HIGHTS):

Many times, this big budget Dam-Project brought the states to the Court about its height matter.

In February 1999, the Supreme Court of India gave the go ahead for the dam's height to be raised to 88 metres from the initial 80.

In October 2000 again, in a 2 to 1 majority judgement in the Supreme Court, the government was allowed to construct the dam up to 90 metres.

In May 2002, the Narmada Control Authority approved increasing the height of the dam by another five metres.

In March 2004, the Authority allowed another raise, this time to 110 metres.

In March 2006, the Narmada Control Authority gave clearance for the height of the dam to increased from 110.64 metres to 121.92. This came after the Supreme Court of India had refused to stay the height of the dam again in 2003.

However, in October 2000, the Indian Supreme Court gave a go-ahead for the construction of the dam. In the end Supreme Court ordered that the height should can be taken to 121.92.

BENEFITS FROM THE PROJECT:

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IRRIGATION

The Sardar Sarovar Project will provide irrigation facilities to 18.45 lac ha. of land, covering 3112 villages of 73 talukas in 15 districts of Gujarat. It will also irrigate 75,000 ha. of land in the strategic desert districts of Barmer and Jallore in Rajasthan and 37,500 ha. in the tribal hilly tract of Maharashtra through lift. About 75% of the command area in Gujarat is drought prone while entire command (75,000 ha.) in Rajasthan is drought prone. Assured water supply will soon make this area drought proof.

DRINKING WATER SUPPLYA special allocation of 0.86 MAF of water has been made to provide drinking water to 135 urban centres and 8215 villages (45% of total 18144 villages of Gujarat) within and out-side command in Gujarat for present population of 18 million and prospective population of over 40 million by the year 2021. All the villages and urban centres of arid region of Saurashtra and Kachchh and all "no source" villages and the villages affected by salinity and fluoride in North Gujarat will be benefited. Water supply requirement of several industries will also be met from the project giving a boost to all-round production

There will be two power houses viz. River bed power house and canal head power house with an installed capacity of 1200 MW and 250 MW respectively. The power would be shared by three states - Madhya Pradesh - 57%, Maharashtra - 27% and Gujarat 16%. This will provide a useful paking power to western grid of the country which has very limited hydel power production at present.

A series of micro hydel power stations are also planned on the branch canals where convenient falls are available.

POWER

FLOOD PROTECTION

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It will also provide flood protection to riverine reaches measuring 30,000 ha. covering 210 villages and Bharuch city and a population of 4.0 lac in Gujarat.

OTHER BENEFITS:

Benefits to small and marginal Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe farmers would be as under :

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Marginal farmers (< 1 ha.) 28.0 %

Small farmers (1 to 2 ha.) 24.4%

Scheduled Tribe 8.7%

Scheduled Caste 9.1%

LIMITATION OF THE PROJECT :

The total land coming under submergence due to the project in the 3 states is 37533 ha.

In Madhya Pradesh, only the government land will be affected in 9 villages and in 20 villages only houses will be affected (due to back water effect) and in 82 villages the submergence of agricultural land is less than 10%.

111 villages in MP are marginally affected. In 32 villages, extent of submergence is 11% to 25%, in 30 villages 26% to 50%, in 14 villages 51% to 75%. in 4 villages 76% to 90% and in 1 village 100%.

In Maharashtra, out of 33 villages affected, the submergence in 12 villages is less than 25 ha, and in 6 less than 50 ha. One village is deserted. Thus, 19 villages out of 33 are marginally affected.

A total of 244 villages are to be affected by the construction of the dam, however only 4 villages will face 100% submergence of agricultural land.

In Madhya Pradesh as many as 18000 affected families will lose only their houses and not their agricultural lands.

Name of the state% of tribals in project

affected population

Gujarat 97.4

Maharashtra 100

Madhya Pradesh 29

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TRIBUNAL AWARD.

Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (October 1969)

Under Section-4 of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act, 1956, the Central Government constituted Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) on 6th Oct. 1969 to adjudicate upon the sharing of Narmada waters and Narmada River Valley Development under the Chairmanship of Justice V. Ramaswami. 

Award Of The TribunalThe Tribunal gave its Award on 7th Dec., 1979. The NWDT Award was notified by Government of India on 12th December, 1979, whereupon it became final and binding on the parties to the dispute. The Award specified quantum of utilisable waters at 75% dependability to be shared by the four States of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan as under:-

Party StatesAllocated share

of water

 % share

of power

Madhya Pradesh 18,250,000 acre feet (22.51 km3) 57

Gujarat 9,000,000 acre feet (11 km3) 16

Maharashtra 250,000 acre feet (0.31 km3) 27

Rajasthan 500,000 acre feet (0.62 km3) Nil

Total 28,000,000 acre feet (35 km3) 100

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State Flow

Gujarat 9.00 MAF

Madhya Pradesh 18.25 MAF

Maharashtra 0.25 MAF

Rajasthan 0.50 MAF

Total 28.00 MAF

(MAF-Million Acre Feet)

The Tribunal determined that the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam should be fixed for Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of 138.68 m (455 ft.). and also directed Government of Gujarat (GOG) to take up and complete the construction of the dam accordingly. According to Clause-16 of the final orders of the Tribunal, the parameters of shares of utilisable waters by the States, FRL of the reservoir and Full Supply Level (FSL) of Navagam Canal are made subject to review at any time after a period of 45 years from the date of publication of the Award of the Tribunal in the official gazette.

The uniqueness of this Award is that a non riparian state – Rajasthan – has been allocated a share of Narmada waters, for meeting the water requirements of the drought prone districts of Barmer and Jalore, which have no other source of dependable water.

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Images of Sardar Sarovar Nigam Ltd.

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