Dams for the Third Millennium

South Asia needs good dams, not useless debate on big darns or small.

Water has played a central role in ensuring human survival and progress over the 5000 years of South Asian history. The importance attached to water in the economic affairs in ancient times is evident from the fact that Kautilya, the well-known author of several important economic policy documents, operated the earliest known rain gauges in 400 BC. Human survival in South Asia is no less dependent on this critical natural resource today than it was in the era of Mohenjodaro and Harappa.   The lifelines of the Himalayan rivers carry an annual outflow of more than 1500 billion cubic metres (BCM) of water (one cubic metre = 1000 litres), making the Subcontinent the second-most water-rich region in the world, next only to Amazonia. All parts of the Subcontinent, except peninsular India, depend directly on the supply brought down by the Himalayan rivers. The fertile irrigated lands in the lower parts of the Indus and the Ganga-Brahmaputra basins today constitute the all-important bread basket for a staggering population of nearly a billion.

Taking full advantage of this natural gift, the region has expanded irrigation and increased food production with the help of new agricultural technologies. This has been useful in preventing widespread starvation or dependence on large-scale food imports in the years following independence from colonial rule. For example, in the case of India, the irrigation potential available in the immediate aftermath of Independence was about 20 million hectares. By 1995, this figure had gone up to about 90 million hectares – no mean achievement.   However, South Asia has hardly solved the challenges of water utilisation, seen especially against the background of an ever-burgeoning population. Food shortage continues to be a major problem and by the turn of the century the region will have about 300 million people living below the poverty line. The physical quality of life in South Asia obviously must be improved, given its low ranking in the Human Development Index (HDI). (Bhutan ranks 155 globally, Nepal 154, Bangladesh 144, Pakistan 139 and India 138 in the latest HDI.)   Additionally, we must not forget that the regional countries are now developing close links with the global market and the international trading system. Domestic land and water use will be influenced more and more by priorities of export. In water-scarce areas this will surely be in conflict with water allocation for human development. Urban demand may succeed in diverting supply from rural areas, commercial farming may continue to draw on underground aquifers at the cost of drinking water, and the presently low industrial demand for water will become substantial, if the industrial growth rate goes up to 6 to 8 percent, as everyone wants it to.