A longer version of my story for the Hindustan Times.It takes off from a post that I did for Kafila two years ago. Predictably, nothing has changed, but people in the Government are now beginning to think about this.

Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh: The sight of the Narmada bursting through the gates of the Indira Sagar Dam makes for great photographs, but the river’s churning wake blurs a truth that the government is eager to hide. Despite spending Rs 142,269 crore on major and medium irrigation projects in a fifteen year period, from 1991-92 to 2006-07, canal-fed irrigation in India has not increased a single hectare.

Figures posted on the Ministry of Agriculture’s website show that the net area irrigated by canals has actually reduced by 13 per cent from its peak of 17.7 million hectares in 1991-1992 to 15.4 million hectares in 2006-07.

“These figures imply that the total geographic area irrigated by these canals is reducing,” said Himanshu Thakkar, an IIT Bombay alumnus who runs SANDARP – the NGO that sourced and compiled these figures from government
data. “While the government claims new areas have come under canal irrigation, it seems other areas are no longer receiving canal water.”

In response to a written query from the Hindustan Times, the Ministry of Water Resources (MOWR) did not dispute the figures, nor offer an explanation for the decline. Instead the ministry suggested it was “more relevant to refer to figures of irrigation potential utilized,” which they
claim has increased by almost 18 per cent from 1991-92 to 2001-02.

Net Area irrigated by canals is the physical area serviced by canals. The MOWR defines Irrigation Potential Utilized as the area where “irrigation water has been actually supplied when the canal system is receiving the design flow at the outlet”. While the NIA figures are updated every year on the basis of a census, there is little clarity on the frequency and rigour with which Irrigation Potential Utilized figures are revised.

Irrigation Potential also considers multiple cropping on the same piece of land, which NIA does not. Thus, Irrigation Potential figures tend to be higher than NIA figures.

“Irrigation potential utilized is one of the most delightfully vague indicators used to measure irrigation facilities,” said a senior government official overseeing irrigation.   “As an indicator, irrigation potential
has serious authenticity and verifiability issues,” said the official, who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

A confidential government report, accessed by Hindustan Times, supports
this claim.

“The was no actual increase in agriculture production or irrigated area of the major crops,” said the report, referring to claims that new irrigation potential was added in 10 major projects in 13 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Punjab and Maharashtra.

Back in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, just 42 km from the Indira Sagar Dam, the farmers of Delgaon village, sit by the dam’s dry canals and pray for rain.The plans for the dam were chalked out way back in 1982, construction began in 1992; but today in 2009, but Delgaon is yet to get a drop of canal
water.

The reason is a slender road-bridge spanning the canal.  “It took more than seven years to get this bridge built,” explains Narendra Kumar Dogaya, the 27 year-old Sarpanch of Delgaon, “And only after people from 15 villages squatted on the roads.”  Until the bridge was completed late last year, no water flowed beyond a point 42.31km along the main canal, leaving an additional 30 kilometres of the canal unutilized.

“The ISP has a total irrigable command of 1,23,000 hectare. Of this, potential created up to March 2009 was 31,523 hectare, of which 13,067 hectare was actually being irrigated,” said internal memo of the government. This means India’s largest storage reservoir project is currently irrigating approximately 11 per cent of the land it was designed to.

“At present, only about 25 per cent of the distribution network is complete,” said G.P. Soni, Executive Engineer at ISP, blaming the slow progress of the project on “a shortage of money and a lack of vision.”

The story is repeated in major projects across India: only 27% of the Sardar Sarovar Project’s distribution network and  23 % of the distribution network of  Rengali Project in Orissa are complete, and in the Bembala Project in Maharashtra, the Dam and reservoir work is complete, but the first 1.5 km from the Dam to the main canal are yet to be acquired.

“In this country the ability to build large dams properly is non-existent,” said Shekhar Singh, a member of the environment subgroup of the Narmada Control Authority that oversees the Narmada Basin including the Indira Sagar Project and the Sardar Sarovar Project.  “Dam construction is  fueled by the constructor and contractor lobby. The benefits of such projects are exaggerated and costs minimised.”

Given the Water Ministry’s refusal to acknowledge the problem, there are no firm answers on why the land irrigated by canals is reducing.  One possibility could be silting of our reservoirs.  A February 27, 2009 letter addressed to Secretary Environment and Forests from a committee
constituted to audit the Indira Sarovar and Sardar Sarovar Projects noted: “about 2/3 of the catchment that runs into several lakh hectares, are yet to be treated.”

Given the sorry state of our canals, farmers are being forced into using tube-wells to water their fields as is evident from the explosive growth of groundwater use. Increases to our irrigation infrastructure have not come from mega-projects, but from the endeavour of small farmers . The sustainability of such a practice is questionable, but it is the Ministry of Water Resources that must give the answers.