Not state by state

For now,in response to the crisis,each state has made an attempt to ring-fence itself with power stations and committed water supply sources,and has tried to keep specific vote banks happy. This has created a piquant situation where several states,including Haryana,are building costly thermal power projects on land hundreds of kilometres away from coal or even water sources. The repeated fights over the Cauvery waters between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka,which have become more acerbic every year,could show up soon as water wars. At one level,an enduring solution would require an amendment to the Constitution to bring water into the Concurrent List. It is too vital a commodity for each state to enjoy the luxury of legislating at will. There must also be urgent investment in the national electricity grid. The Manmohan Singh government must use whatever is left of its political capital in the rest of its term to address these two problems. Letting them fester,as recent events show,can extract a heavy national toll.

At the same time,crises like these are opportunities for governments to speak to the people on the kind of environmental activism on water and power that prevents a workable solution. While nuclear power or even thermal energy has its problems,alternatives like solar energy will take time to be ratcheted up to corresponding levels. As the cities turn restive,India does not have the space to postpone long-overdue decisions in these sectors.

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