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Title: Need to implement schemes for inter-linking of rivers.
SHRI N.S.V. CHITTHAN (DINDIGUL): Water is the most important and critical among the common property resources. Water is also the most important for human sustenance. Agricultural development, ground water recharge and above all, the ecology as a whole, depend heavily upon sustainable water resource development.
In view of the large variations in rainfall over space and time, our country experiences frequent floods in some parts and severe droughts in some others. Floods are a recurring feature particularly in the Brahmaputra and Ganga rivers which carry 60 per cent of the water resources of our country.
Interlinking of rivers in India is expected to greatly reduce the regional imbalance in the availability of water in different rive basins. Surplus water which flows waste to the sea would be fruitfully utilized.
Construction of storage dams as proposed will considerably reduce the severity of floods and the resultant damages. The flood peaks are estimated to reduce by about 20 to 30 per cent in the Ganga and Brahmaputra basins.
There should be an integrated approach to watershed management and measures for harnessing rainwater and prevent its runoff of sea. Nationalisation of all rivers and their inter-linking, more budgetary support for land and water development programmes and involvement of panchayats to monitor enforcement of laws and court orders is call of the day.
I request the Union Government to implement various schemes for inter-linking rivers particularly in southern peninsula with a view to equally distribute water for drinking and irrigation purposes to water scarcity states like Tamil Nadu.