Drinking Water from Reservoir

Water projects hang fire in Berhampur
Sisir Panigrahy Express News Service
First Published : 26 Oct 2010 07:59:22 AM ISTLast Updated : 26 Oct 2010 12:37:51 PM IST
BERHAMPUR: To address the drinking water crisis in the Silk City, the State government has now decided to bring water from Janibili reservoir in Soroda. Though water from Soroda reservoir comes to Dakhinpur reservoir for daily supply to the city, the water is supplied through open canals due to which, 80 per cent of water goes waste.
Keeping this in view, the government has decided to bring water through pipes from Soroda reservoir. A project at the cost of Rs 250 crore has been prepared and survey work has also been completed for it. The work, however, is yet to begin although the decision was taken at a high-level meeting presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here last month.
Several plans like this have been chalked out in the last three decades to address the drinking water crisis in Berhampur, yet none has materialised so far.
A case in point is the Ghatakeswar project which can be an immediate solution for the water crisis and irrigate hundreds of acres of agricultural land in Chikiti area.
Senior Congress leader Chitaranjan Dash said the Ghatakeswar project was planned during 1982 but it was limited to files till 2007 when the Government approached Nabard for financial aid.
The Nabard, accordingly, sanctioned Rs 29 crore for the project. The government, however, is yet to take measures to rehabilitate families which would be affected by the proposed project.
Apart from government land, eight acres of private land needs to be acquired and 41 families of Kankia, Sarakot and Koilikot villages evicted.
Meetings in this regard have been held umpteen times but no concrete measures have been taken till now.
Even the land identified to be exchanged for the land to be submerged by the project, could not be transferred from the Revenue to the Irrigation Department.
As a result, the Irrigation Department is unable to start the plantation work which is mandatory for forest and environment clearance.
Due to the delay, the project cost has risen to Rs 42 crore against the earlier estimate of Rs 29 crore.
Dash said the Janibili project is a welcome step but the government should also begin work on the Ghatakeswar project at the earliest for the benefit of people.

Centre rethinking clearance granted to Orissa's Brutanga irrigation project?
Priscilla Jebaraj
The Union government is reportedly having second thoughts about the forest clearance granted to the Brutanga irrigation project in Nayagarh district of Orissa, largely due to concerns over the submergence of a key elephant corridor.

The project was discussed again by the Forest Advisory Committee on Friday, according to sources at the meeting. They suggested that protests against the submergence of the elephant corridor and the possible adverse impact on local wildlife and tribal communities were discussed.

Interestingly, the original clearance for the project was announced on the same day of the release of the Project Elephant task force report, which had emphasised the importance of safeguarding elephant corridors. That was also the day Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh rejected the forest clearance for Vedanta Aluminium's controversial Niyamgiri mine.

Centre not biased

In fact, the Brutanga project, which the Environment Ministry considered and approved over a span of just six months, has been Mr. Ramesh's poster boy case to prove that the Centre is not biased against Orissa. In the wake of decisions against the Vedanta and Posco, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had complained that the Ministry was prejudiced against his non-Congress government.

In response, Mr. Ramesh has been emphasising that while his Ministry cleared the Brutanga project in a jiffy, the State government took 10 years to apply for a clearance, implying that it did not care about its own farmers, but only about large corporate projects.

Now it appears that the Ministry may be rethinking the project it cleared at such speed.

“The Brutanga project will destroy the route regularly used by elephants,” says Shivaji Naik, an activist with the Wild Orissa NGO, which has been campaigning against the project.

The Ministry's order granting forest clearance included a large number of conditions intended to safeguard the wildlife, such as building overpasses to allow elephants to cross the canal.

However, Mr. Naik cites wildlife experts who say that the construction of artificial barriers has not proved to be a feasible solution for elephant movement in the country.

The NGO says the proposed submergence area falls adjacent to the Baisipalli Wildlife Sanctuary. A study team found that both the submergence area and the canal that will connect the Brutanga and Kuanria Reservoirs are being regularly used by elephants during their transit across the Mahanadi each summer.

“If the elephants' pathway is blocked, they would not be able to mix and breed with populations on both sides of the river, affecting genetic balance. The corridor is also used by tigers, sambar and many birds, says the Wild Orissa.

Water scarcity

Mr. Naik also warns that since Brutanga is not a perennial river, the project would cause water scarcity in the Baisipalli Wildlife Sanctuary and in the tribal villages dotting the forests of the region. With elephants confused by the blocking of their traditional route, there would be a danger of more man-animal conflicts, he says.

World Bank to deepen engagement with poor states in India

Washington, Sept. 6 (PTI): The World Bank has said it will deepen its engagement in poor states such as Orissa and Bihar in India, the country which borrowed the biggest sum of 3.75 billion dollars globally during 2006-07.

The bank said it will focus on cross-cutting reforms such as governance and fiscal management, and continue addressing deficiencies in the South Asian region's investment climate, such as weak infrastructure, red tape and corruption.

"We will also deepen our engagement in states where poverty is increasingly concentrated, such as Orissa and Bihar in India and Sindh in Pakistan," it said in a media release.

The World Bank's programme in India focuses on providing basic services such as access to clean water and education, improving infrastructure for rural areas, and employment.

Full Story