Treat Mahanadi as a River, not a commodity….
Urge participants of Regional Dialogue
About 100
representatives of 32 dependent communities, farmers’ organisations and various
civil society groups from Odisha and Chhattisgarh gathered in Sambalpur to
chalk out a joint strategy to oppose rapid industrial allocation of Mahanadi
water. The Water Initiatives Odisha and
Chhattisgah’s Nadi Ghati Morcha hosted the gathering on December 23-24, 2012.
Sambalpur: Dec 24, 2012
In the first of its kind gathering that
brought together groups from both the states sharing Mahanadi water, the
participants including environmentalists and water dependent communities, demanded
that local communities must be involved in management of Mahanadi water,
demand.
About 40 million people depend on Mahanadi
for survival in both the states. In the last 50 years, water use from the river
has increased by more than seven times. Chhattisgarh has planned 58000 MW
thermal power generation using mostly Mahanadi water; Odisha has planned for
75000 MW.
“River is a common resource of people. They
should get priority in its water,” says Gautam Bandhopadhya of Nadi Ghati
Morcha.
Participants emphasised on joint efforts to
counter both the state governments’ aggressive industrial allocation of water.
“Water management of the river (Mahanadi) should not be seen in terms of
upstream or downstream states. There should be joint movement from both the
states to fight rapid industrialisation and its impacts on Mahanadi,” said
Prafulla Samantara, leading environmental activist.
The gathering decided to further strengthen
people’s movements against privatisation of Mahanadi. “We have been able to
slow down government’s water allocation. Movements along Mahanadi in both the
states must come together to stop further water allocation to industries,” said
Lingaraj, farmer leader.
Representatives of communities affected by
industrial pollution of Mahanadi and increasing allocation of water to
industries demanded the government should formulate a river policy.
Current water policy has not dealt with
rivers in totality, they said.
One of the suggestions is to properly bring
out people’s rights over Mahanadi river. “A people’s council of communities
directly dependent on river should be formed to manage Mahanadi water,” Durga
Prasad Nayak, a retired professor and noted environmentalist.
As activists fighting against Mahanadi
water allocation to industries narrated many instances of government giving
priority to industrial uses over domestic and irrigation, the non-availability
of updated water availability data on Mahanadi came out to be a key issue.
“Government uses old data to decide allocation. We are not sure if those
allocations are valid,” said Panda.
Water Initiatives Odisha
Email: ranjanpanda@gmail.com, Cell: +91-9437050103/9937561700
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