Interlinking of rivers in India - Advantages & Disadvantages

Interlinking of rivers in India – Advantages & Disadvantages

Introduction:

Interlinking of Rivers is nothing but joining the rivers of the country by networks of canals and reservoirs. Interlinking of rivers in India was proposed for the first time during British Colonial rule. The main intension of the proposal was to reduce the transportation cost of raw materials and finished products. The Indian Government has established the National Water Development Agency to study the interlinking of rivers under the Ministry of Water Resources. Many states have proposed for interlinking of rivers due to scarcity of water in their states and hence the central government is working on a few projects.

Yes – It will reduce the poverty and floods & distribute water equally.

1. India receives most of its rain during monsoon season from June to September, most of it falls in northern and eastern part of India, the amount of rainfall in southern and western part are comparatively low. It will be these places which will have shortage of water. Interlinking of rivers will help these areas to have water throughout the year.

2. The main occupation of rural India is agriculture and if monsoon fails in a year, then agricultural activities come to a standstill and this will aggravate rural poverty. Interlinking of rivers will be a practical solution for this problem, because the water can be stored or water can be transferred from water surplus area to deficit.

3. The Ganga Basin, Brahmaputra basin sees floods almost every year. In order to avoid this, the water from these areas has to be diverted to other areas where there is scarcity of water. This can be achieved by linking the rivers. There is a two way advantage with this – floods will be controlled and scarcity of water will be reduced.

4. Interlinking of rivers will also have commercial importance on a longer run. This can be used as inland waterways and which helps in faster movement of goods from one place to other.

5. Interlinking creates a new occupation for people living in and around these canals and it can be the main areas of fishing in India.

No – It will environmental problems, ecological imbalance & reduce water table

1. Interlinking of rivers will cause huge amount of distortion in the existing environment. In order to create canals and reservoirs, there will be mass deforestation. This will have impact on rains and in turn affect the whole cycle of life.

2. Usually rivers change their course and direction in about 100 years and if this happens after interlinking, then the project will not be feasible for a longer run.

3. Due to interlinking of rivers, there will be decrease in the amount of fresh water entering seas and this will cause a serious threat to the marine life system and will be a major ecological disaster.

4. Due to the creation of Canals and Reservoirs, huge amount of area which is occupied by the people will be submerged leading to displacement of people and government will have to spend more to rehabilitate these people.

5. The amount required for these projects is so huge that government will have to take loans from the foreign sources which would increase the burden on the government and country will fall in a debt trap.

Conclusion:

Interlinking of rivers is definitely a good solution for the scarcity of water, but interlinking has to take place after a detailed study so that does not cause any problem to the environment or aquatic life.
Post your comment

    Discussion

  • RE: Interlinking of rivers in India - Advantages & Disadvantages -Pankaj soni (09/03/17)
  • Interlinking of rivers in India some pron and cons when we
    Talk about environment some year is not good for all of country
    World. That reason some place are drought and flood.
    If we want to change that of conditions. We need to focus
    Our interlinking river project.that gives some benefit our country.
    It is also beneficial for our former. Which need of water for crop.
    And also benefit our dry city. And we can use that water for creating
    Electricity for our country people.so I think interlinking river are giving
    Advantage.
  • RE: Interlinking of rivers in India - Advantages & Disadvantages -rushank deshpande (09/03/17)
  • This is going to be an extreme higher growth of Indian economy/agricultural growth of India.I think that there should be stay on seventh pay commission of central government employees to complete this project as soon as possible.
  • RE: Interlinking of rivers in India – Advantages & Disadvantages -Snehal (07/22/15)
  • Interlinking of revers would be most beneficial to agriculture field because in India occupation of Huge manpower is as comparable to business man more are involved in agriculture field as a farmer.
    We heard every year of the ending having scarcity of water in lots of villages and cities. they even didn't get drinking water also, so that Interlinking of rivers will be actually beneficial to those who are suffering from it.
  • RE: Interlinking of rivers in India – Advantages & Disadvantages -Deepa Kaushik (07/21/15)
  • Interlinking of rivers has its own pros and cons. Interlinking rivers imply channelising and canalising the river and making them distributed throughout the country in a better network. It is a long awaited proposal of many of the states to have an appropriate distribution of water to all the states.

    Interlinking the rivers could be a very good solution to combat the situiation of floods and drought affecting the different parts of the country. We have a altogether different climatic condition prevailing from north to south and east to west. The distribution of rainfall is one of the factors that have a drastic variation in different parts of the country. Channelising and interlinking the rivers might help to distribute the water to less water supply states and avoid flood situation in others with heavy rainfall.

    Agriculture is another major area which will get positive impact. The cultivated crops could get adequate water supply round the year. Also the flo of raw materials could be a bit easier. The channels for inter-linking the rivers can be helpful in raising the water-tablein the drought riudden areas.

    On the other hand, inter-linking the rivers could cause a threat to the aquatic life with the quantity of fresh water getting more distributed in canals leaving the seas more saline. It could be a major drawback for the survival of sea animals. the marine life need to be preserved while we count for the benefit of the human beings. Also, the cannals require a huge lanmd space which could cost the forest land, human populated zone or agricultural land. In any way, the environment would have a sound blow which is not much welcoming.

    Thus, the inter-linking of rivers should be carried out in a way, so that the natural biosphere doesn't get affected. The proposal which calls for a huge sum of investment should leave us with benefits and not a net loss.
  • RE: Interlinking of rivers in India – Advantages & Disadvantages -Tanmay (07/21/15)
  • Interlinking of river will boost transportation in india and thus transportation of raw material and products will be faster and cost effective.This will reduce price of commodity and thus will improve standard of living.
    Moreover some parts of india faces flood problems and some scarcity of water so if this happens then it can solve both theses problem and will help in better distribution of water supply which will boost agriculture sector .
    But on the other hand like every new project this will require a lot of investments so government has to make an analysis whether this plan is financially possible or not .