Hansua Conflict

Hansua water for Posco project opposed

Correspondent

Speakers at a seminar criticise the government's proposal

The programme was organised by Odisha Jala Surakhya Janamanch

Farmers in large numbers attended the seminar

CUTTACK: Speakers at a State-level seminar here on Friday opposed the proposal of Orissa government to supply water from the Hansua River in Jagatsinghpur district to the proposed Posco steel plant at Paradeep. Organised by the Odisha Jala Surakhya Janamanch, the seminar was attended among others by hundreds of farmers from areas like Biridi, Raghunathpu, Tirtol, Erasama and Balikuda of the district.

Janamanch convener Chittaranjan Mohanty said that the Hansua was not a natural river. “It's not even a tributary of the Mahanadi system and not even a rivulet having independent source of water,” he said. “Rather the Hansua is a drainage channel of the Taladanda canal through which seepage water from the canal and rain waters flow during floods to avert water-logging in vast stretches of agricultural land in the locality,” Mr. Mohanty said adding that the government's proposal to draw water from this channel for the South Korean steel major is nothing but indirectly drawing water from the Taladanda canal.

The 90-km Taladanda canal from Cuttack to Paradeep was exclusively meant for irrigation purpose. Even when the tail-end areas of the canal face acute shortage of water for irrigation, how can the government think of drawing water from the middle of the canal for industrial purpose, the speakers pointed out in unison. Any proposal to draw water from the Hansua channel would also result in water stagnation and would have serious consequences on agricultural patterns of local people stretching from Kandarpur to Nalibar areas where besides paddy and vegetables, other cash crops like groundnut and mustard were grown in large tracts, the farmers said.

Presided over by Janamanch president Akshaya Das, the seminar was addressed among others by former Union minister Brajakishore Tripathy, Janamanch secretary general Biswabasu Das, CPI (M) leader Subash Singh, environmentalist Prafulla Samantra, engineer Lalit Patnaik and former MLA Bijay Naik.