Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region is facing the worst agrariancrisis “ over the last one decade, several thousand cotton farmers hadcommitted suicide “ and it appears that the packages announced by PrimeMinister Dr Manmohan Singh and the state government had not yet yieldedresults.
A scientific study by Greenpeace on the water availabilityof the Wardha and Wainganga rivers and the impact of thermal power plants onthe rivers “ conducted by IIT Delhi conclusively proves that the additionaldemand imposed by the large cluster of thermal power plants in Vidarbha reducesthe future water availability for irrigation and other uses in the region by asmuch as 40% in Wardha and about 17 % in Wainganga.
As of 2010, more than 55,000 MW of coal based power plantsare proposed in Vidarbha. Information received from the Vidarbha IrrigationDevelopment Corporation (VIDC) also states the fresh water requirement of thesepower plants is about 2050 Million Cubic Metres (MCM) or about 72 TMC ft. Thestudy has also deduced that almost 1700 MCM that is being proposed to be takenfrom the Wardha and Wainganga river basins that would otherwise have irrigatedabout 3,40,000 hectares of farmland.
Vidarbha has long been classified as an under- developedregion with a historical backlog of development across many sectors likeirrigation, infrastructure and electrification, irrigation being the leastdeveloped of all. Lack of irrigation facilities have been linked to suicidesand agricultural distress by many independent studies and by the planningcommission. Such massive increases in non- irrigation use of water resources inVidarbha is bound to increase the development backlog of the region.
“The government’swhite paper on the status of irrigation in Maharashtra states a 28% increase inthe irrigation potential of the state. However, it is certain that if all thesepower plants are commissioned the water available for irrigation will bereduced in Vidarbha which might escalate the agrarian distress and irrigationbacklog of the region,” said Jai Krishna, Campaigner, Greenpeace.
The water policy of the state government amended last year,prioritised water for irrigation over industrial needs. However for the 8 yearsfrom 2003 till 2011, it has been the other way round. The High PoweredCommittee for water allocations chaired by the Minister for Water Resourcesalone had diverted about 400 MCM of water to thermal power plants from thevarious reservoirs in Vidarbha during this period. Apart from this the VIDC has also providednumerous water allocations directly from the rivers.
