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October     Last updated: October 14: 7:00 p.m.

Plenary meeting on water management in Tokyo
No alternative to Sardar Sarovar —Jaynarayan Vyas

From Our Correspondent

GUJARAT: Narmada and Major Irrigation Projects Minister Shri Jaynarayan Vyas has said that there is no practical alternative to Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP). Like vitamins cannot be a substitute for staple diet, similarly, small water harvesting structures can be supplementary and complementary to Sardar Sarovar Project but they cannot substitute this project. With constantly falling water tables, increase in fluoride, nitrate and salinity in ground water and intermittent failure of monsoon in Gujarat, the only solution of drinking water for the people of the State is SSP. Shri Vyas was speaking at the plenary meeting of water management, in the Club of Tokyo, in Japan. Water management experts from all over the world attended the meeting, including Dr Ismail Serageldin, Vice-President of World Bank, Dr Mahmood Abu-Zeid, Water Resources Minister from Egypt, Prof Benedito P.F. Barga, President of International Water Resources Association Brazil, Dr Ali M. Shady, Senior Policy Advisor, Canadian International Development Agency, Canada who are prominent members of the Club of Tokyo.

Shri Jaynarayan Vyas, is the only non-Japanese Asian who has been inducted in this club. Linking the human rights and regional transfer of Narmada waters from waters surplus regions to water scarce regions in Gujarat and Rajasthan, Shri Vyas also made a graphic presentation about the emerging water scenario in various parts of Gujarat. Shri Vyas pointed out that the extensive resettlement and rehabilitation efforts undertaken by the government of Gujarat for project-affected people include provision of infrastructure like agricultural land, houses, schools, roads, in addition to providing them sustainable income generating opportunities. A few experts in the meeting also pointed out that selected success stories of resettlement as in case of SSP should be circulated as a model for the other projects to follow. It was felt that lack of any co-ordinated communication strategy on the part of various governments implementing such projects provided an opportunity to a few misguided and misdirected individuals and institutions to spread deliberate misinformation about the excellent rehabilitation work being carried out in such projects. The Minister informed the members of the Club of Tokyo that Gujarat government will be organising an international conference on Water Development and Poverty Alleviation in January 2001 to be attended by water management experts from all over the world.