STORIES OF WATER & WATER POLITICS.
KODAGU. RIVER CAUVERY AND OTHER RIVERS.
The year was 1989, and the organisation KER. It was named aptly as “Kodagu Ekikarana Ranga” by none other than our Chidvilas of Shakthi daily. It was also fondly referred to as ‘koyra'(?????).
In local language /vernacular it meant, ‘the incorrigible’, ‘the uncontrollable’, the most mischievous’.
The previous year, Kodagu had just experienced a bad monsoon, and the monsoon predictions for the future were also not very promising. The coffee planters had just finished harvesting a poor crop and were desperately irrigating their plantations, to set the crop for the next year. At this time, the state issued instructions to seize all engines or pumps in rivers, that were irrigating private lands.
KER which belonged to neither ruling nor opposition party swung into action. It issued invitations to all departments responsible to seize irrigation systems. KER invited them for a discussion in Kanoor, on the banks of river Lakshmana theertha.
Those days, Kodagu Srishti Ranga was a play group which enacted street plays. They were invited to the venue. Ten odd sprinkler systems were also in position to start irrigating immediately after the meeting.
The play group enacted a play with the following theme:
Kodagu experiences extreme monsoons, inclement weather, landslides, road blocks and people face all kinds of hardship due to the wet cold weather. Every time a person goes out, he was bound to return wet. Inspite of all this Kodagu brings maximum monetary returns to the state.
The Engines were being seized, from hapless planters, spread out far from each other, unlike farmers in Mandya. To unite and fight back as a ‘United Front’ was not coffee planters’ way.
But now the time to unite and fight had come. The hero of the play called out to planters to unite. Find out where these people, seizing their engines hail from. Then he said, what will follow will be what these officers asked for.
It was a veiled threat. Dramatically delivered.
He then signalled for planters to start irrigating from the river. Ten engines sprang into life, spewed a little smoke and settled down to pumping rhythmically. The invited officers of Karnataka left quietly. No engines were seized, or cases registered. Instead of seizing officers tried to help the planters to make the best of the little water they used.
NOW IN 2024. IN KODAGU WE HAVE COME A FULL CIRCLE. KARNATAKA IS BACK IN ACTION.
Orders to seize engines from river beds has been issued. But why did this situation arise?
- Bad monsoon? – Yes.
- Bad planning by Bangalore development Authority to provide sufficient
drinking water to its people? – Yes. - Bad leaders who care more for their alliance with Stalin of DMK than for
the comfort of the people they rule? -Yes.
Frankly Karnataka government should be paying back all farmers and planters of Malnad areas a certain amount per every litre of water they use for ecological services rendered by them. Even Madhav Gadgil has said so in his report.
RIVER RAVI.
It is no secret that northern India’s , and especially Punjab’s agricultural success was purely due to the six rivers- Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beast and Sutlej. (See the map) After the partition in 1947, a huge portion of North Western India, comprising of large tracts of land from Punjab went away to make Pakistan. And when, the1947-1948 Indo Pakistan war was fought, the focus was on possible Indo Pakistani water dispute in the future. Then in 1960 The Indus Water Treaty was signed and ratified in Karachi, by Jawaharlal Nehru, the then PM of India and Ayub Khan, the dictator of Pakistan, under the supervision of the World Bank. The treaty aimed to allocate the use of and resolve disputes over the Indus River and its tributaries which flow through China, India and Pakistan. The international dispute over Indus waters began in 1948, when engineers in Indian part of Punjab shut off water supplies to an important Pakistani canal. Eversince, political narratives in Pakistan have cast the struggle for Indus waters as a matter of national survival.
The treaty signed in 1960, gives
- Control over the waters of the three ‘eastern rivers’- Beas, Ravi and Sutlej
located in India- with a mean annual flow of 41 billion m³ – to India. - While control over the waters of the three ‘western rivers’-Indus, Chenab
and Jhelum located in India with a mean annual flow of 99 billion m³ was
given to Pakistan. - India got only 30% of the total water carried by the Indus system, while
Pakistan got the remaining 70%.
Though the treaty is in no way connected with security aspects of both the nations, Pakistan being a downstream nation of both eastern and western rivers, fears that India could potentially create floods or droughts in Pakistan, especially in times of warlike situations.
After the Treaty was signed, a transition period of ten years was permitted, in which India was bound to supply water to Pakistan from its eastern rivers until Pakistan was able to build the canal system for utilisation of waters of the western rivers. Also, as per Article 5.1 of Indus Water Treaty, India agreed to make a fixed contribution of UK Pound Sterling 62,060,000, towards the cost of construction of new head-works and canal system for irrigation from Western rivers in Punjab province of Pakistan. India paid this total amount in ten equal instalments, despite 1965 Indo Pak war.
The Indus Waters Treaty is considered one of the most successful water sharing endeavours in world today.
BLOOD AND WATER CANNOT FLOW TOGETHER.
(said PM Modi after the 2019 Pulwama attack killing 40 Indian CRPF soldiers)
Now, 64 years since the signing of this treaty, India owes Pakistan nothing. On 14 Feb 2019, just weeks before the Lok Sabha Elections in India, a Jaish-e-Muhammad terrorist rammed an explosive laden car into a convoy of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at Lethpora, a village in Pulwama, on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway. The attack targeted two buses in the convoy and killed 40 soldiers.
PM Modi vowed that he would enter Pakistan and seek revenge. (Ghar mein Gus kar Marenge) Which he did on 26 Feb 2019, exactly 11 days and a few hours later, through a surgical strike on Balakot- a Terrorist training camp deep inside Pakistan. Indian media reported that the camp was levelled and about 200-350 JeM militants were killed. He also said “Blood and Water, cannot flow together”, referring to the waters of River Ravi, that is the main source of sustenance to Lahore, the financial capital of Pakistan. India is not bound by the above treaty to share waters of Ravi with Pakistan.
After the ten-year transition period from 1960 and after the payment of UK Pound Sterling 62,060,000, towards developing canals to its three western rivers, India owes its neighbour nothing. So Modiji decided that it would be a righteous and just way to teach Pakistan a lesson, if he denied water to Lahore. With that in mind, new canals, water storage systems and inter connecting of rivers was planned, old plans were revitalised and executed in these last five years. And as always, Modiji has delivered on his promise. Two weeks ago, water that was flowing out of River Ravi into Pakistan has been completely stopped.
2024 ELECTIONS ARE JUST ROUND THE CORNER.
Now, the first blast at Rameshwaram Cafe has already gone off. Threats of bigger attacks have been posted on emails to state leaders. Pakistan would do better to advise its sleeper cells, to sleep quietly. Otherwise, it will pay more dearly, than it did on 26 Feb, 2019, if it misbehaves with Bharat. Just a reminder not a threat.
Major Biddanda Nanjappa,
Recipient of President’s Gold Medal, Convener FMCGT Forum.
The facts and views presented are of the author.
