Inland Waterways – Destruction of Rivers

Written by – Shripad Dharmadhikari And Jinda Sindhbhor

The Indian Government has recently taken up an ambitious project of National Inland Waterways.The new report of Manthan and Shruti tells of the side effects of the construction phase shown below:

1. Dredging in the river will destroy aquatic life.
2. Dredging leads to the removal of silt, rocks, and mud. This disturbs stability and balance of the riverbed.
3. Water becomes dirty in dredging. Due to this many fishes migrates from their original place. The radiation of the sun unable to reach deep into the river, deprives aquatic plants of light and kills them.
4. Dredging disrupts the connections of underground water reservoirs. Due to this, water supply in nearby wells and waterfalls is reduced.
5. Due to dredging on river bays and creeks, the salty water intrudes and affects to the forests, fishes, and aquatic lives.
6. Harbors and hubs lead to the surrounding trees and mangrove forests to be removed on a large scale. And with the construction of ghats and ports, the local people and fishermen will be out of reach to the Rivers.

Therefore, waterways lead to the rivers and human being brought to crisis. It is very necessary to solve the side effects before running such multi-purpose projects.

At last a close look up in such project that:

In the National Waterway Act, 2016, details of 111 national waterways have been given, according to which the National Waterways pass through almost all major rivers of India. Below we can see the number of proposed waterways in different states in sequence:

On August 1, 2016, according to the press release issued by the Port Ministry of Transportation through the Press Information Bureau, there are six national waterways working in India: 

1. National Waterway 1:  Ganga Bhagirathi Hooghly River System (Allahabad-Haldia).
2. National Waterway 2:  Brahmaputra River.
3. National Waterway 3:  West Bank Canal (Kottapuram-Kollam) and uddyogmandal and Champkara Canals.
4. National Waterway 68:   Mandovi River.
5. National Waterway 97:   Sunderbans Waterway.
6. National Waterway 111: The Juaari River.

Authors are environmentalists associated with Manthan Adhyayan Kendra.