Yes! That is the doom and gloom for PUNJ-AB, the
fabled land of Five Rivers, milk and honey.
But Fikar-not! As they say in Southall, there is a
sixth river, the Daru Dariya. It is not a mythical and mystical river like the
Saraswati. It’s real. It is the Daru Dariya and flows freely on the highways
and byeways.
That Daru is
not going dry. What is going dry is the Daru you wash and bath with, the one you
cook with. The one that sustains life.
Part of Punjab is termed semi-arid Tropics. It is
being said by experts that Punjab may soon run dry of ground water. From semi-arid
Tropics we could become semi-arid desert! The first step towards
desertification.
Reason; wrong agricultural policies. The Green
Revolution of the 70s was an accident. Nothing done since has had a positive
impact on Punjab’s agricultural growth and output. On the country, almost every
decision has been detrimental to the states financial, agricultural and
material health. By material I refer to the land and depleting water table.
The decisions are made for political reasons, read
garnering votes. There is no technical, scientific or practical reason.
In a recent report by Montek Singh Ahluwalia he has
termed the free power to farmers as “highly regressive’’ as it benefits only
big farmers.
He has also asked, not suggested, to reduce the
procurement of rice from water starved areas.
Punjab and Haryana are not paddy growing lands.
Paddy demands 10 times the water of a traditional crop. We must voluntarily
change our cropping habits or we will be forced to. Water will simply dry up!
The other reason for water level falling is the
unscientific and impractical design of tubewells. They are designed to waste
water. During the summer months the temperature can be in the 40 degree Celsius
plus range. In addition, the hot dry wind the ‘Loo’ blows across the land.
Both these factor are conducive to evaporation.
See the accompanying photograph. The pumped water is
being thrown about a couple of meters into a ‘Kutcha’ pond, exposing the water
to very hot air. Evaporation will take place upto 40-50%. A slight wind will
blow away and scatter some more of the water that leaves the pipe. The water
then flows along an open drain. More loss to evaporation plus seepage into the
soil. A loss of 60% and more is to be expected.
So, if you pumped a thousand litres of water you
actually used about 400 litres.
The drain should be ‘pakka’ and/or covered. The tank
receiving the water should also be ‘pakka’. Canvas pipes like the fireman’s
hose or plastic pipes are the answer.
The pipe delivering water should have an elbow bend
which will throw the water into a cemented brick tank. The mouth of the pipe
should be below the level of the tank wall. This will keep evaporation to a
minimum level.
Montek Singh also pointed out that the free power
policy was “very damaging environmentally because it promotes water intensive
paddy cultivation, leading to an excessive use of ground water.”
What is surprising, if not horrifying, is that all
the professors and experts from the PAU never noticed this flawed design of the
tubewell delivery system which is the root cause of excessive use and waste of
water.
I don’t think that Punjab’s water depletion is at a
critical point. Intelligent solutions, as suggested by professionals (Montek
Singh) may save the day.
A couple of days after this article appeared in the
papers, Montek Singh came under heavy fire for his report. “No withdrawal of
free power as long as I am here!’ said the Captain, CM Punjab.
Sukhbir Badal, SAD Chief countered the Captain and
rejected the report by Congress’s ‘blue eye economist’ and objected to the word
‘regressive’.
Quite right! The desertification of Punjab, the land
of the Five Rivers would be a step in the right direction.
So we have the leaders of Punjab sitting in a car,
going full speed toward a cliff. The drop will land them in the dessert.
To hell with consequences, the land or the people.
Alas! It is politician that runs the country.
A quote from Linda Lingle, a US politician. Her
explanation is to the point,
“Politician or too often think about the next
election. Statesman think about the next generation!”.