Opinion (Spotlight Weekly)

India's Water Grid & South Asian Waterways

By AB Thapa

It has been recently reported in Indian news media that the Government of India is considering to launch a grandiose project to link all the main rivers flowing in their territory. From the engineering view point it indeed is a big challenge. The Ganga-Cauvery link considered since a long time involves a pumping lift of about 400 meters for delivering water across the Vindhya mountain. So a very short period diversion of flood season surplus flow from the Ganges basin to Cauvery might prove to be very costly. It would be necessary to provide desanding structures, canal and the capacity of the pumping station virtually unprecedented in size. Dr. K.L. Rao then Minister of Irrigation and Power Govt. of India, who was the main architect of this grandiose project, perfectly knew about the great difficulties that lied ahead. He has clearly written about it in his books.

Dr. K.L. Rao's Proposal

In view of the unprecedented size of the scheme and the complexity, magnitude and cost of the studies required thereof, it was considered advisable to consult international experts before embarking on the investigations. India had sought the advice of the experts to obtain a second opinion on the feasibility of the scheme based on the preliminary studies made by that time. Apart from evaluating the socio-economic benefits of the scheme on a rational basis the experts assigned to this project indicated the further studies and surveys and investigations needed to be undertaken. The UNDP was involved in conducting the study. A team of UN experts had visited India in December 1971 and in March 1972 to study the problem and submit its report. The UNDP mission had observed that the National Water Grid is technically feasible and presents no insurmountable engineering or construction problems, but requires continuing study and refinement over a very very long period. The feasibility of the WATER GRID project would very much depend on the availability of cheap electricity for pumping.

Govt. of India's New Policy

Dr. K.L. Rao had written that it would take a very long time to carry out the investigation to plan the India's Water Grid Project. He has said that India had to plan now for succeeding generations of the second India - India of 21st century. Nevertheless, this project was not accorded great importance. The studies were going on at a very slow pace. However, now the Government of India appears to be decided to launch this highly ambitious project with renewed vigor and determination. It seems the President of India A.P.J. Kalam revived this idea in his Independence Day address to the nation last year. It is about time now that in the light of Indiaís recent policy to link rivers in their territory we also make afresh assessment of our water resources. Information provided in the Indian news media clearly suggests that the Government of India is now engaged in developing a policy to obtain the consent of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh through a revenue sharing agreements. It is obvious that the Indian experts conducting the study would have found the role of Nepal to be crucial for this type of linkage project to succeed.

Sir Arthur Cotton's Plan

Needless to say that most of the projects to be included under the India's Water Grid Plan would be under study for a very long time. Moreover the feasibility of various individual projects would have to be established before taking the decision to implement any of them. Availability of surplus water even during the wet season in the Ganges basin would remain as the most serious constraint. Nevertheless it would have been very interesting to conduct the study to provide WATER GRID to develop inland waterways as proposed by the Sir Arthur Cotton in the nineteenth century. Such waterway development plan could also include nominal water transfer component. Sir Arthur Cotton's plan could be extended to cover India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh by a network of inland waterways for the transportation. For planning this type of waterways, we can learn a great deal from the past experience of the Europe which has now been covered by a dense network of waterways that connect each country with the Baltic, North Sea, Bay of Biscay, Meditarrinean and the Black Sea.

Sir Arthur Cotton had developed the concept of an extensive navigation plan more than a century ago. His plan included the building of canals to link major rivers and tributaries. He had proposed a north-west coastal canal running from Bombay to Indus, waterway from Calcutta via Hooghly and Ganga to Cawnpur, waterway from Allahabad via Chambal, Narmada,; Wainganga to Godavari etc.

Early European Experience

In Europe the canal navigation era started towards the end of the 17th century. France took the lead integrating its national waterway system further by forging the missing links. In the north the Saint-Quentin Canal, with a 3.5 mile tunnel, opened in 1810, linking the North Sea and the Schelds and Lys systems with the English Channel via the Somme and with Paris and Le Havre via the Oise and Seine. The Rhine- Rhone Canal, opened in 1834, provided a direct north-to-south route. The Sambre-Oise Canal linked the French canal system with the Belgian network via the Meuse.

In Germany in the late 17th and early 18th centuries the three great rivers, the Elb, Oder, and Weser, were linked by canal. The Ludwig Canal, forming part of the Rhine-Main-Danube route, was opened in 1840. A nationwide Russian canal system connecting the Baltic and Caspian seas via the Neva and Volga rivers became navigable in 1718. In the 19th century Russia made connections between the heads of navigation of its great rivers, the Volga, Dnepr, Don, Dvina, and Ob.

Importance of Inland Waterways

Despite modern technological advances in air and ground transportation, inland waterways continue to fill a vital role and, in many areas, to grow substantially. The ongoing construction of the giant Three Gorges project in China expected to further develop Yangze river navigation and recently in 1992 the completion of the construction of the Main-Danube link canal can also be cited as the most recent examples of the continued importance of the inland navigation. For many types of commodities, particularly such bulk commodities as grains, coal, and ore, inland waterway transport is still far more economical than any other kind of transport. Although very large capital investment is required to modernize existing inland waterways systems and for new construction, water transport has demonstrated competitive strength as a carrier for commodities in the movement of which the time factor is not of prime importance. Thus, it is hardly surprising that modernized inland waterways, using the latest navigational aids and traction methods and traversing the great landmasses of North America, Europe, and Asia, play an important economic role.

New Navigation Canals

The primary physical restriction is that vessels cannot travel through water at speeds possible for road vehicles or railway wagons. Waterways must provide larger tonnage units than those possible on road or rail in order to be competitive. Modern waterway engineering, therefore, is directed towards provididng channels suitable for larger vessels to travel faster by reducidng delays at locks or from darkness and other natural hazards. In the last century existing small canals were upgraded and many new canals much larger in size were built in Europe. In Germany the 467 km long Mittelland Canal was opened in 1938 that completed the east-west link in a system of about 11,265 km of inland waterways, extending from the Dortmund-Ems Canal east of the Rhine to the Elbe north of Magdeburg. The Nord-Sud Canal (or Elbe-Seitenkanal) was completed in 1976. This canal leaves the Elbe about 20 miles above Hamburg and, running south, joins the Mittelland Canal near Wolfsburg, reaching a total of 71 1/2 miles and shortening the route between Hamburg and the Ruhr by 134 miles. The Main-Danube canal connecting the Rhine with the Black Sea was completed in 1992.

France's many of the low capacity canals are being raised to the 1,350-ton standard. A major development planned in the 1970s in cooperation with West Germany was the construction to this standard of the North Sea-Mediterranean waterway via the canalized Rhone and Rhine rivers. The Rhine has been navigable between Basel and Rheinfelden since 1934. In The Netherlands the extensive canal system based on large natural rivers and serving the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam has required relatively small improvement. The Juliana Canal was built in 1935 to bypass the Meuse River between Roermond and Maastricht and it was further improved after Second World War. The Twente Canal opened in 1936.

In the former Soviet Union navigation played a major role in the country's economy. The Volga-Don Canal, 63 miles in length, was completed in 1952. The Moscow-Volga Canal, built between 1932 and 1937, runs 80 miles from the Volga to the Moskva River at Moscow. Among other important navigation canals are the 127-mile canal connecting different systems enabling to link Baltic with the Black Sea, the White Sea- Baltic Canal built between 1931 and 1933.

Economy and Size of River Crafts

With the development of rail transport in the 19th century, canals declined as the dominant carriers of freight in the United States and Britain. In continental Europe such adverse impact was not noticeable because the navigation canals in Europe were larger in size. Wherever the canals were small, they were enlarged. To meet competition from road transportation, with its greater flexibility and higher speeds, water transport has in its advantage the capacity for larger units thus there was tremendous rise in size of the vessels. As a result, the 300-ton barges operating economically early in the last century have been replaced by crafts as large as 1,350 tons and more. In Europe, push tows normally operate with fewer than six barges, but on the Mississippi, with its deep channel, a push tow may aggregate 40,000 tons, an assembly of 40 barges being controlled by one 9,000 horsepower push tug. On the Ohio River the original 600-foot lock chambers were lengthened to 1,200 feet to obviate double lockage. The development of canal waterways continued in Europe and North America in 19th and 20th centuries also.

The coordinated and combined use of inland water transportation and the maritime transport to carry barges abroad oceangoing vessels in the so called Barge Carrier System can be of great interest to industrial centers deep inside the mainland. This system eliminates one or more transfer-handling operations in the movement of cargo from the point of origin to its final destination.

Cargo River Coasters (CRCs) can operate in inland waterways as well as in the open seas. Following the recent ESCAP study of the Ganges Navigation, the Kosi Navigation Canal could be used to operate CRCs even from Nepal to other ports beyond Haldia. Such possibility would be a dream come to true for a landlocked country like Nepal and various river port cities of the South Asia located far away from the seaports.

Vision, Mission, SAARC and Waterways

It can hardly be denied that for peace and development there is a need to have a vision of a new South Asia where the SAARC would be playing more dynamic role towards greater unity among its member countries. More than a decade ago Jacques Delors, president of the European Commission (the European Communities' 17-member executive body), had advised member governments of the EC either to speed up their integration or be bypassed by the history; in fact, they opted in 1990 for bold steps towards greater unity. Now the SAARC is also facing the same type of challenge. The SAARC should now try to identify the fields the most appropriate for its involvement at the present time. A study to develop a very long term vision to provide a grandiose network of waterways like in Europe to cover India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal does not appear to be inappropriate for an institution like the SARRC to be associated.