The Nile would rank as the most romanticised river in world’s history. But the longest river on the earth, with a seemingly smooth and silken mythological as well as modern facade, carries in its depths loads of strife. Indeed by current trends, the river which is the combination of two rivers, namely the Blue and White Niles (nothing racist about the descriptions) is all set for the flow of some red blood too.
The Nile passes through ten impoverished countries and constitutes their life line. The Nile Basin nations of central and east Africa and the Nile Delta State of Egypt in North Africa have always been at loggerheads. With most of those nations now seeking to extract the best out of the river due to pressure of population and development, Egypt faces a huge crisis. It has been a rare case of a lower riparian nation holding all the aces, and the historical domination is now set to end. Egypt has said it is even prepared to go to war if its water interests are jeopardised. Indeed, African nations had already gone to war over some rivers earlier.
In West Asia war and strife are an unending mega TV serial and only the provocations vary. Pundits predict that the next big cause for bloodshed there will be water, not oil. A lot of friction has already been built up between Turkey, Israel, Syria, Jordan and Iraq over rivers like the Jordan, Euphrates and Tigris. With enough dams waiting to be blown up and enough Bin Ladens laden with bombs, it is only a matter of time before the explosive tryst between the two happens. So instead of the now familiar footages of burning oil wells, we may in future even witness water ‘burn’!
The river valley civilisations of yore, as their nomenclature indicates, evolved around water sources. But modern man’s quest for water, which is the source of life, is anything but civilised. While rising population and rampant industrialisation have increased the demand for water multifold, water resources are headed in the opposite direction, depleting at a hectic pace. Adding to the woes is the climate change causing monsoon failures and droughts. It is estimated that by 2025, more than half of the world’s population will be starved of clean, potable water. There is a chilling consensus among thinkers of all hues that the future wars on earth are going to be over water.
But nations lapsing into war for water, at least, has a geo-political logic. However, in India we now see the strange and sordid spectacle of two states within the federal soverign virtually on the verge of war! The raging dispute over the sharing of Cauvery waters between Karnataka and TN has now reached one more milestone and one dreads to think where it is headed. With the announcement of yet another ‘solution’, the border districts of the two States in the Cauvery belt resemble a war zone. Armymen have been posted by the thousands, people are getting evacuated or are emigrating on their own and an air of sinister silence hangs. With the bloody precedent of the 1991 anti-Tamils riots in the aftermath of the interim award vivid in our memories, the safety of the lives, limbs and livelihoods of the Tamils in Karnataka remains the overwhelming concern of all here. Really, the scenario resembles the LOC with Pakistan!
With the nation at war with itself, the situation has all the trappings of a constitutional breakdown. Under Art 262, river water disputes between States have to the settled by Parliament. Yet, the troubled waters of these rivers often break the Parliamentary walls and inundate the courts. The current tribunal itself was formed under the Supreme Court’s specific direction after the Centre washed its hands off. Legal luminaries are sure that the tribunal’s rulings carry the weight and finality of an Apex court verdict. Yet Karnataka violated the interim award, which was gazetted, with impunity. There is every reason to believe that the final award faces a similar fate. In any case, the Leftists of Kerala, who quote the rule of law next only to Marx’s utterings, have set a wonderful example by defying an SC verdict itself on the Mullaperiyar Dam issue. Clearly, it looks as if no federal writ, be it judicial or Parliamentary, would run, if States choose to be intransigent.
While water is thus challenging the globe and its nations, TN and its politicos remain in glorious rational bliss. That TN is a lower riparian State may be a geographical infirmity, but the lack of political will and unity here is equally to blame for its plight. If Karnataka and Kerala have consistently got away with violating the law, it is not just owing to the political consensus there but also because they could bank on the disunity here. Most observers agree that Karnataka is a gainer in the recent award, yet it is the one making the most noise. And most feel that TN is a loser, yet the State is in a mood to swallow it all with just token objections, that too couched in hazy rhetoric. And now we hear that AP is mulling a dam over the Palar which would hit northern TN very badly, but our politicos can be trusted to stick to their fiddling. For J& K, more than Karnataka or Kerala, it is the other who looms as a greater irritant. The Delta farmers, being no choosers, have reluctantly resigned themselves to the award precisely because they know their politicians cannot deliver anything more! A pity that a rationalist State has no rational answer to its water woes.
Not just globally, but in our own backyard many ‘water wars’ are waiting to be waged. So what next? A dam at Saidapet to hold back River Adyar from Adyar? Or a tiff between Chintatripet and Triplicane over the perennial Cooum? Or pitched battles with parched pitchers between residents, upstream and downstream, at a water pipe or at a tap’s end?
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