Author: Our Special Correspondent
Publication: Organiser
Date: September 28, 2003
Introduction: The bridge has exposed
hollowness not only for the "traditional wisdom" tomtomed by its builders,
but also of the prestige associated with the Magasaysay Award
The much-hyped "Lawa-ka-bas" dam,
which won so much acclaim from the former President K.R. Narayanan and
several environmentalists, has quietly collapsed, exposing the hollowness
not only of the "traditional wisdom" tomtomed by its builders, but also
of the prestige associated with the Magasaysay Award which many describe
as an alternate Nobel Prize.
The dam was situated in the Alwar
district of Rajasthan across the Ruparel river, which flows into the neighbouring
Bharatpur district. Its professed builder, "waterman" Rajendra Singh
of Bihar, had poured scorn on engineers for opposing the construction on
ground that the entire idea of building a dam across even a small river
was unscientific, as it was proposed to be built by earth and sand only.
The State Irrigation Minister Ms Kamla had also opposed the scheme. .
They proved right when torrential
rains in the catchment area amounting to about 10 cms created floods, the
force of which this dam could not withstand. Of course, the "waterman"
is talking big now and the arrogance associated with the environmentalists,
who obtain Magasaysay Award, now has a higher pitch. However, the
fact remains, an enquiry on why the "dam" collapsed and on how the Magasaysay
Awardees are selected, should be in order.
For, we know now that almost all
these awardees speak against any development works undertaken by the Government
and describe these works with supreme disdain as "folly".
Similar is the case of almost all
foreign award winners. Secondly, most of them become anti-establishment,
irrespective of the political formulations of Governments. Thirdly, at
least in one case, the originator of the "Chipko" idea was never given
her due and. someone else won: the Magasaysay Award. Gaurva Devi,
the illiterate woman from the Reni village in Garhwal Himalayas, died 12
years ago on July 5. She was the person who had faced armed guards of a
forest contractor for preventing tree falling in the nearby forest but
is forgotten except by an organisation, Himnad Sangh, which observed her
death anniversary on July 12.
Coming back to the earth-and-sand
dam, one must point out that Alwar in Rajasthan is NOT a desert district.
The well-known Sariska Forest, which is a tiger reserve, is situated not
far form the Ruparel river. Those not aware of this fact appear to
been highly impressed by the water harvesting programme, undertaken by
Rajendra Singh. The "dam" of course was an extended model of the check
dams ("johads") built since centuries and which used to serve the people
at times of water stress. Thousands of such "johads" exist all over
northwestern India including rural Delhi. However, they are built
to last and not collapse after the first rains, like roads generally built
during famine relief works. Gujarat has recently extended the number
of check dams substantially, which has resulted in considerable augmentation
of the ground water levels. However, all these checkdams have been
built to last, and did not collapse with the first showers of the southwest
monsoon.
True, there are water-harvesting
structures in Tamil Nadu in particular which are almost 1500 years old,
such as the Cauvery Grand Anicut, built during the Chola period.
However, it has been built with stones and jointing materials, not with
sand and earth.
Rainwater harvesting is beneficial
no doubt and helps everyone with increasing availability of fresh water.
However, it may also be remembered that in India, on an average, it rains
for a Cumulative period for 100 hours only in a year of 365 days, which
has 8760 hours!
