Background: Narmada Bachao Andolan and Sardar Sarovar Dam

On September 17, the Sardar Sarovar Dam project in Narmada districts

Kevadia was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, almost 56 years
after its foundation. With the opening of its 30 gates, it was dedicated to India.
On June 17, the gates were closed shut on the verdict of the Narmada Control
Authority to increase the height of the dam from 121.92 meters to 138 meters
and its storage capacity from 1.27 million cubic meters to 4.73 million cubic
meters (MCM).

Significance

The project is immensely beneficial for over 18 lakh hectares of land and
9000 villages in Gujarat which will receive water through a network of a
canal. Besides this, around 0.86 million cubic feet (MAF) of water will be
set aside and used as drinking water by 131 urban centers and 53% of
villages in Gujarat.
It is the biggest dam in the world as far as the volume of concrete used is
concerned; otherwise, it takes the second place after the Grand Coulee
Dam in the United States.

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 The dam is 1.2 km and till date has produced 4,141 crore units of
electricity using its two powerhouses- river bed powerhouse (1,200 MW
capacity) and canal head powerhouse (250 MW capacity). According to
the present records, the dam has earned more than Rs 16,000 crore,
almost double the money invested in its construction. The power
generated will be shared by Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and
Gujarat, out of which Maharashtra owns the bigger portion of their share
as it gets to use 57% of the electricity produced by the dam. Madhya
Pradesh and Gujarat get 27% and 16% of the electricity generated
respectively. The water from the dam will also help irrigate around
2,46,000 hectares of land in the desert districts of Barmer and Jalore
in Rajasthan, and 37,500 hectares in the hilly tribal tract of
Maharashtra.
It holds the potential to feed 20 million people, provide about 30 million
people with water, provide employment for nearly 1 million people and
supply power to areas that are in desperate need of high power.
The dam embodies Prime Minister Modis dreams and expectations of
making poor farmers wealthy by the year 2022.

Background

Concept & construction

In 1946, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel laid the brilliant plan for a dam of this
grandeur. In1961, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru further cemented his idea
by laying down the foundation stone of the dam. In 1960, Gujarat too became a
separate state, by branching out and off of the then State of Bombay.
Several disputes among Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan
regarding the distribution of water led to the establishment of the Narmada
Control Authority (NCA) and its Review Committee (RCNCA) in 1969 done
by an especially constructed tribunal which gave its verdict in 1979, ordering for
the dam's height to be 138.68 m. This finally led the dam from being just a
blueprint to commence on its journey of becoming a structured reality in 1987
after clearing all environmental necessities and laws.

Phased permission

There were many blockades from 1995 in the construction of this dam, some
legal challenges brought on by Medha Patkar, an activist who was a part of the

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Narmada Bachao Andolan and petitioned the Supreme Court against the
carrying out of the dam project. As a result, the Supreme Court passed a stay
order on the construction of the dam, but not for long as it later gave its verdict in
favor of the creation of the dam but laid down a few ground rules to abide. These
conditions were that the gradual permission to increase the height of the dam
would be granted only if the review of the rehabilitation of project-affected-
people (PAP) is positive. In 2000-01, the Supreme Court authorized Narmada
Control Authority (NCA) and its Review Committee (RCNCA) to supervise
rehabilitation and accordingly, order a gradual increase in the height of the dam.
The height of the dam was increased in 2004 to 110.64m, and in March 2006 to
121.92 m. Recently in June 2017, its height got risen to 138.68 meters.

Protests and challenges

The Sardar Sarovar Dam project has been the hotspot for several
controversies over the years. The project has faced much opposition since its
inauguration in 1961, the main one coming from the Narmada Bachao Andolan
(NBA) led by social activist Medha Patkar, who first visited the dam site in
1985. She found various flaws like environmental and rehabilitation issues. She
was fortunate in attaining a stay order from the Supreme Court in 1996. They
made a strong case by pointing out how the dam violated many required
environmental and social conditions as meted out by the Ministry of
Environment and Forests. They wanted to attack directly at the node which
was aiding the establishment of the dam, the World Bank and cut the funding.
To fulfill it, NBA organized several mass protests against the project which
garnered international attention. NBA got some supporters in the form of some
notable figures like Baba Amte, Arundhati Roy, etc. This led to the World Bank
setting up a panel to review the project. On assessing the case and its every
intricate detail, it was found that there was some inadequate assessment made
by the Indian government and the World Bank which resulted in the loan
authorized by the World Bank to get canceled in 1993. After years of deliberation,
Supreme court finally granted its consent to the dam construction activity
provided all the project-affected-people (PAP) are properly rehabilitated, and this
is monitored and carried out for every five meters increase in height. The
challenges seemed unending when another one was posed by the dispute
between three states- Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh over the
issue of distribution of Narmada water. To resolve this, Narmada Water

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Dispute Tribunal (NWDT) was established in 1969, which studied various reports
and finally announced its verdict in 1979 according to which 35 billion cubic
meters of dam water would be used for consumption. The portion that each
state will have a monopoly on would be- 65% for Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat will
receive 32%, and Rajasthan and Maharashtra would be eligible for the
remaining 3%.

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