THE GUJARAT MODEL
The state’s turnaround from acute scarcity to water adequacy in just two decades wasn’t just due to the Narmada canal, it also took visionary leadership
The 458-km-long Narmada canal snakes its way through south and central Gujarat like a green highway. Not far from Gandhinagar, the state capital, a branch of the canal takes water to Dhanki, a massive pumping station, located in the dusty plains of the region. From there, the first of an incredible series of water-lifting operations takes place to ensure that the canal waters reach the drought-prone Saurashtra region which earlier got only 17 per cent of the total water in the state. That was because, as state principal secretary (water) Dhananjay Dwivedi explains, “Saurashtra is shaped like an inverted saucer and the canal water has to be pumped up a steep gradient of 69 metres or the height of a 23-storey building so that it reaches every part of the region.” Similarly, branch canals take water to the deserts of Kutch and the dry lands of north Gujarat. In just two decades, the Narmada canal waters have transformed the entire landscape and the lives of the people of the state.
Before work began on the canal, Gujarat, located in a drought-prone zone of the country, was perennially short of water, both for drinking and irrigation. Dwivedi recalls that as deputy commissioner for various districts, one of his main tasks was to organise water tankers and even water trains to meet drinking water needs. When india today did a major story titled ‘Thirsty India’ in 2003, the cover visual showed hundreds of villagers crowding around a large well to get a bucket of water in a village in Gujarat’s Limbdi taluka. Sona Waghela, a housewife, recalls how she used to spend four hours daily filling drinking water from drying wells. “There were quarrels and occasional fights to get the maximum water,” recalls Waghela. “The entire family used to throng the well as one member couldn’t carry more than two vessels.” In 2021, Limbdi presents a vastly different sight. It is awash with water with the dried-up lake full to the brim and houses, including Waghela’s, having water on tap. All this because a branch of the Narmada canal started supplying water to the area around 2008.
Yet, it was not an easy transformation. If it succeeded it was because of the far-reaching vision of Narendra Modi who took over as chief minister of the state for the first time in 2001 when the Narmada canal was being constructed. Modi told his officials to not just rely on the Narmada water but strengthen the existing canal systems, and insisted that the management of drinking water and irrigation should be participatory. That meant breaking the bureaucratic stranglehold over projects and involving both NGOs and the water beneficiaries from the beginning itself. Most importantly, Modi, as chief minister, set aside funds to build the infrastructure needed to supply water because he saw it as central to the socioeconomic transformation that he wanted to bring about. In all, the state has invested over Rs 1 lakh crore in water resources in the past two decades.
Apoorva Ajay Oza, vice-president, water, irrigation and power programmes, Agha Khan Rural Support Programme, who worked closely with the Gujarat government on the mission, says the reason for the success was three-fold. He says,