Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar - The 'Water Man' Everyone Worships, Hates and Knows Nothing About.

It is a hot day, perhaps the hottest of the month. The sun shines down mercilessly, and while faraway rural lands writhe and die of thirst and misery, the urban landscape also burns in the scathing heat. It is 14th April, and bang in the middle of a horrid summer.

The roads today are extra crowded, half- blocked with huge pandals equipped with huge audio speakers blaring harsh, incoherent music. Young men (and women) shout slogans and dance in a huge celebration, oblivious to the searing heat and traffic, almost as if in a trance.

It is 14th April. Ambedkar Jayanti. The day when one of the most extraordinary and controversial personalities of Indian history and politics was born. Messiah of the lower castes, Father of the Indian Constitution, a celebrated economist, a formidable politician – few could have carried so many identities with as much strength and effectiveness as Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. His many identities have been a subject of intensive discourse across the nation, but among all of the identities and roles he has been loved and hated for, one stands utterly neglected, almost forgotten – that related to India’s water resources and policies.

I admit I was totally unaware of this aspect of his accomplishments before I stepped into the field. It was only when I began to research Indian water management and policies did the history come up, inextricably linked to Dr. Ambedkar, Dr. Ambedkar as modern India’s first ‘water man’ would not strike a chord with the current Indian society, but the man’s contribution is nothing short of monumental. It is also visionary. And most unfortunately, swept aside by the tides of time as well.

… Dr. Ambedkar hails from the region that is now the state of Maharashtra, the state that is the worst hit by drought this summer of 2016. It is a state of contrasts – a state that has the largest number of dams and farmer suicides, a state with a regulatory authority for water but no strict measurement rules for water supply, a pioneer and role model in water laws and policies, but a biased politician-bureaucrat-rich farmer/industrialist nexus which results in about three quarters of the state’s irrigation water going to a single crop – sugarcane – alone. It intrigues me to think how Dr. Ambedkar would react to this sorry state of affairs.

Even before India became independent, Dr. Ambedkar had focused his attention on the water resources of the country as a Member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy, holding the portfolios of Labour, Irrigation and Power from 1942 to 1945. In his view, the water resources were already a national entity; they bound the country by their transboundary nature. He boldly likened them to railways, stating that they, like railways, “flow from province to province”, and lamented the fact that the then existing constitution had treated them quite separately, “with the result that railways are always treated as Central, but waterways are treated as provincial”. It is thanks to him that item no. 56 of the Union List reads as “Regulation and development of inter-State rivers and river valleys to the extent to which such regulation and development under the control of the Union is declared by Parliament by law to be expedient in the public interest”.

Dr. Ambedkar’s perception of the national (and sensitive) character of water resources is clearly evident from another amendment which he proposed post Independence – “Adjudication of disputes relating to waters of interstate rivers or river valleys.”

For some, it would seem rather pessimistic, almost cynical to talk of disputes and conflicts between the states of a newly formed nation which rose united against their imperial rulers. Yet, Dr. Ambedkar’s pragmatic foresight could not be more accurate. The competition between communities, cities, regions and states to access maximum water has often resulted into disputes and conflicts – be they between the peninsular states over the Kaveri, Godavari or Krishna rivers, or over the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal between Punjab and Haryana.

Dr. Ambedkar had a three-fold approach towards water resources –
a) national/regional character,
b) multipurpose resource development, and
c) a tool for improving the social and economic conditions of the country.

In his view, water could not – should not – be compartmentalised; it was a complex, multi-dimensional resource that could be best conserved and utilised if all of its characteristics and uses were addressed in a combined, integrative manner. It was this idea, the idea of integration, which was the underlying current of his thoughts and policies on water resources, and with which he built the foundation of water resources development in the country.

Contrary to most experts of his time, he considered excess water to be an asset. While talking about the rivers of Odisha, he remarked that man suffered “more from lack of water than from excess of it”. He actively promoted a new outlook – that excess water was not a threat; it did not always mean destruction, and that it could be conserved and used for the betterment of people. Therein arose the multipurpose nature of water resources development projects – excess water was held not only to minimise flood effects, but also for generating hydroelectricity, irrigating farms and fields, soil conservation, domestic water supply, navigation, and even post-war employment.

The Damodar Valley Scheme (DVS) was the first materialisation of such a concept in Independent India, and the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) the first step in its realisation. He called upon Bengal, Bihar and the Central Provinces to cooperate and jointly develop the Damodar Valley, ideally on the lines of the Tenessee Valley Authority (TVA) of the USA which he considered as a good role model.

The three provinces were extremely hesitant and unwilling to cooperate. However, Dr. Ambedkar was successful at getting all of them at the table to discuss the matter. He argued that the project “should not only deal with the problem caused by floods, it should also provide for irrigation, electricity and navigation. There has not been enough realisation that our policy for water resources development must be a multipurpose policy so as to include all possible uses of water.” Further he also saw the scheme as a post-war employment project, instrumental in giving people livelihood options even after the employment and economic growth bursts caused by war had subsided.

Dr. Ambedkar’s three-fold approach was more or less present in the Sone River and Hirakud projects as well, but what was equally extraordinary was his ability to get uncooperative parties to sit together, discuss the issues, and come to solutions. Here was a man who not only devised holistic and far-reaching water policies, but also, with the strength of his conviction and superb negotiation skills, transformed them into reality. A man of thought, he was also a man of action.

If Dr. Ambedkar’s thoughts and approach can be described as visionary, his methods can be described as nothing short of holistic and meticulous. He laid great stress on planning – in-depth, multidisciplinary, integrated and inter-state/ inter-regional. He gave unprecedented importance to technical and economic viability and equitable distribution of the benefits of the project in the valley and in its vicinity. He highlighted a crucial and oft-neglected (to this day) aspect – resettlement and rehabilitation of project-affected populations. He established the Central Waterways Irrigation and Navigation Commission (CWINC) immediately after Independence, which later became the Central Water Commission (CWC). He stressed on the importance of setting up multi-sectoral and inter-state River Development Authorities for the holistic development of water resources in the country.

And what do we see today? At the very fundamental level, little (and poor) or no planning. It is in the 21st century, about 70 years post Independence, that Maharashtra is in the process of making its first State Water Plan, the first state in the country to do so. Out of the five river valleys in Maharashtra, only two river valleys, Krishna and Godavari, have plans, and those are not comprehensive, holistic and integrated enough. Hundreds of small, large and medium projects have sprung into progress all over the state, their cost overruns amounting to thousands of crores of rupees, with little importance given to their benefit/cost ratios. The distribution of water in completed projects is far from equitable; 76% of Maharashtra’s irrigated water supply goes to sugarcane fields (which are 6% of the total cultivated area of Maharashtra) alone.

Resettlement and rehabilitation are either avoided, underrated or blatantly ignored; the cases of the Tehri Dam and the Sardar Sarovar project on the Narmada notwithstanding, the results of poor or non-existent R&R are evident in mass migrations from project-affected areas to other towns and cities, leading to a host of socio-economic problems.

The CWC is clearly a step back from the integrated, holistic CWINC. The intention behind combining water, irrigation and navigation was to create an institution which would approach water resources at a national level in an integrative manner, or, in the words of Dr. Ambedkar, “advise on how the water resources can be best utilised and how a project can be made to serve purposes other than irrigation”. The CWC, a truncated version of the CWINC, focused on little more than irrigation and hydro-engineering, and it was only in the 1990s that it came up with guidelines for integrated river basin planning, which today sit gathering dust. The States supersede the CWC in determining the nature of water resources management of the country.

Serious river basin planning and its effective execution are both absent today. The plans for Godavari and Krishna Rivers are rather ineffective, and they are not inter-state. The tribunals which have divided the waters of these rivers between Maharashtra and its neighbours have not ventured into inter-state cooperative conservation and development of these rivers. River basin agencies (RBAs) which address both the multidisciplinary as well as inter-state aspects of water resources effectively are the need of the hour.

Dr. Ambedkar, in those times, would have been disappointed. Dr. Ambedkar in these times would have been even more so, for he would also spot the neglect of aspects like adapting to climate change, maintaining and enhancing environmental flows, conserving ecosystems and improving and preserving water quality. It is indeed disheartening to see a water-abundant country such as India, blessed with a visionary like him, now grapple with water quality-quantity-wastage issues, lack of proper planning, droughts induced by its own policies and actions, and a complete nonchalance among the majority of the population regarding the preciousness and value of water resources.

After all, it took an event like the Indian Premier League (IPL), however insignificant its water use may be in comparison to sugarcane and sugar industry, to make a large proportion of the population of Maharashtra realise the severity of water scarcity and drought in their own backyard.

What remain to be realised, understood and inculcated, are the thoughts and approaches of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, one of the most celebrated and venerated public figures in Maharashtra and indeed, the country, regarding, of all things, water. We have associated him firmly and solely with the politics of caste, reservations, Dalits and the empowerment of the lower castes, forgetting that many of his contributions were for the upliftment of all of India, beyond caste and religion.

The man is gone, but his thoughts still remain preserved, thankfully, in his work and writings, but the collective memory and conscience of the public as well as the politicians retain not even an iota. By doing so, we are only doing a great disservice to our nation, and pushing ourselves even closer to an impending, acute water crisis, the manifestations and consequences of which can assume unimaginable proportions.

… Posters of Dr. Ambedkar are all over the town. Huge, towering posters, brimming with odes and adulations. It is a huge celebration of the messiah, the Bharatratna, the deity, but his thoughts, qualities and accomplishments are totally lost to most of us. What meaning does this fervour, this celebration have? As we dance, give speeches, worship and politicise Dr. Ambedkar across the length and breadth of the country, the taps in our homes run dry, and our towns and villages are parched. What are we celebrating? What are our priorities?

I am sure Dr. Ambedkar is wondering, too.

References:

Rao, Dodda Srinivasa. Inter-state Water Disputes in India: Constitutional and Statutory Provisions. 1998. Book.
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=rv0DeK3cr-EC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=item+74+of+draft+constitution+of+india&source=bl&ots=zjEvijBo-G&sig=I2FSsnL4JsFPhLN34aMIEGdQJMs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPo4PvjZvMAhXFH44KHXW7BPAQ6AEINzAF#v=onepage&q=item%2074%20of%20draft%20constitution%20of%20india&f=false 

Kamble, G.S. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s Contribution the Formulation of Water Policy. International Multidisciplinary Researech Journal. July 2014. https://researchdirection.org/UploadArticle/189.pdf 

Constitution Society. https://www.constitution.org/cons/india/shed07.htm 

Picture Sources:

India Net Zone https://www.indianetzone.com/

Central Water Commission www.cwc.nic.in 

Wikimedia https://upload.wikimedia.org