MNREGA and Water woes in the desert canal

The IGNP is among the biggest irrigation schemes in the world, having fed on loans from the World Bank, the Japanese and the government of India. It was conceived as a project with multiple objectives of ‘greening’ and ‘settling’ the desert. Hailed as the ‘kingpin’ of state planning for developing the desert, it started in 1960s and till now around Rs 7,139-crore have already been spent on it. The 445 km long-lined main canal running parallel to the Indo-Pak border, with nine branches, seven lift schemes and 21 direct distributaries, apart from 8,187 km of minor canal network, have inscribed a new hydraulic spectacle traversing the sandy plains and sand dunes. According to official reports, more than 9.5 lack hectares of area have been opened for irrigation. The IGNP is meant to provide drinking water to 3,461 villages and 29 towns in nine districts of western Rajasthan. So far so good.


Compare these impressive statistics to the grim and peculiar water woes of the canal command area in IGNP Stage II. Till the first week of August the farmers got sufficient water and went ahead with sowing. The crisis started around the 10th august when the water levels in the Masitawali head dipped to only 3700 cusecs as against the promised water of 5300 cusecs. On 24th August the water estimates at Masitawali Head were not even one third of what was to be expected in a normal year. The Bhakra reservoir and the Pong reservoir that feed the IGNP system were filled to not even half of what they would have been. The water deficient standing crops have aggravated the anxiety of the farmers especially in the IGNP Stage II after 682 RD. Finally as August was ending the Chief Engineer of IGNP canal makes a press release that there is no water for irrigation. The agriculture experts eruditely advice on using the stunted crop as green fodder only. That water, let out only once in a fortnight, is to be only used for drinking is enforceable by law and monitored by police. Declaration of drought in the IGNP canal areas has questioned the pompous assumption, originating in the colonial times, about the role of the perennial irrigation schemes in liberating regions and communities from 'drought'. Still to keep the lure of water intensive agriculture alive, the canal authorities are thinking of constructing only cemented ponds and covering water channels as one of the hot favorites in the menu of drought relief, be it from NREGA or otherwise.


Finally, let us come to the crux of the matter, the string that holds together all the pieces that is, politics and control over water. Everything that happens on the region stretching from river valleys of Punjab to the snowlines of Himalayas to the rain-shadow area and the extreme arid western zone of Rajasthan is related to a specific spread and distribution of water. It is more with regard to this resource rather than land that makes the difference between the nature of real capitalist intervention and those undertaken only in the previous historical epochs.

Punjab, Himachal Pardesh , Rajasthan and Haryana in their eagerness to become development model states each guard their shares of waters and keep making contesting claims over their rightful shares or compensations. The chaos that reigns over this political economy of water is indeed an opportunity for the rich and powerful kulaks, the trans- regional companies to flourish.


As capitalism further takes over managing the scarcities in terms of commodity values, what is referred to as ‘Conquest of Water’ (J Goubert) will remain a recurring them nightmare shaking human societies to their roots.

Map Source: World Bank Documents