GANDHINAGAR, SEPT 21: Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel had announced last year, in the midst of a grave water crisis, that the perennial drought in the State would be a thing of past.Less than a year of this pronouncement, what stares Gujarat into the face is a drought worse than the one last year. And the state once again may have to depend heavily on the over-exploited and depleting groundwater, the tankers and even the trains.The government spoke of a comprehensive masterplan to put the water problem behind permanently, but now official sources argue that there can't be any such plan, except on an annual basis, for it all depends on how the monsoons behave every year. The only solution, they argue, is the Narmada project.None of the few measures initiated as well as talked about last year is of much use today, due to the government's own fault and partly because of the vagaries of nature. The government launched the checkdam construction scheme on a cost-sharing basis and set up close to 10,000 such small dams.It did not rain enough at all places for the checkdams to recharge groundwater, but wherever there was good rains the dams helped percolate water into the ground. But not on a massive scale. Official sources point out that no amount of checkdams is of any meaning, till there is enough flow of water. In fact, while no survey has been made, the checkdams may have proved a hindrance at some places in waters reaching the bigger dams that feed a larger populace.Another solution implemented by the government, on the much-talked formula of inter-basin transfer of water from surplus areas to scarce areas, was the Mahi-Pariyej Pipeline Scheme, an improved version of the Saurashtra Pipeline Scheme, which was initiated and scrapped twice, the last time by the BJP Government.Here, some progress has been made, and Water Supply Secretary R K Tripathi even claims that by December-end the Mahi scheme will be able to provide water to the crisis zones of Amreli and Bhavnagar. As fate would have it, the Kadana and Panam dams in Panchmahals that would have fed waters into the Mahi scheme have just about 10 per cent water.This means Ahmedabad and Vadodara cities, besides the Kheda region, would face water crisis much before even summer. At present, Ahmedabad gets water from the Kadana-Wanakbori-Raska route, while Vadodara sources its supply from Kadana and Panam. Kheda gets from Kadana and Wanakbori reservoirs.Tripathi says, ``The Mahi-Pariyej Scheme is a long-term solution and the scheme is being implemented at a record pace. Nobody had expected there would be so much less water in Kadana, this has never happened in years.'' He agrees groundwater, the tankers and the trains will again have to be the chief sources.Even as plans are being drawn up to find options to Kadana for this year, it may not surprise anyone if there are regional tussles for water. The government is considering to shift whatever water is available in Kadana, to Ahmedabad and into the Mahi scheme, while searching for new answers to the needs of Vadodara and surrounding districts.
