By Anil Pathak, Gandhinagar, 18 February 2013

With Narmada domestic water supply line supplying drinking water to parts of Saurashtra-kutch and north Gujarat the perennial drought problem in this region has become only a matter of past as 700 km long pipeline supplies 2,500 MLD to more than 9,000 villages and 135 towans and cities.State`s water supply and sewearge board has created one of the biggest water supply network which does not exist anywhere in the world.

State`s water supply secretary M S Patel claimed that there are several networks for laying railway lines,telecom and road networks but there is no parallel to Narmada domestic water supply network which has been created by the state government to deal with the scarcity conditions in the semi arid areas of Saurashtra and Kutch.While talking to this correspondent Patel said that the major task of laying the water supply line has been completed at the cost of Rs. 4,700 crore and this has created a record of sorts in the history of water supply across the world.

” Earlier People in these districts had to migrate to the green pastures in search of food and water for them as well for their cattle but the things have now changed for better since there is no shortage of drinking water which was very badly experienced in absence of permanent source.”

According to him the state government has by laying such a big water supply pipeline taken a major step in solving the major problem of scarcity in Saurashtra and Kutch areas and also in North Gujarat districts of Banaskantha,Patan and Sabarkantha in last few Years.

Sources in the department said that the delay in clearance of the state`s request for installing nof gates over Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam at Kevadia Patel said that installation of sluice gates would take the height of the dam to 138.67 meters from 121 at present.The central government he said has sought several queries on environmental issues and unless they were fulfilled in collaboration with the partner states like Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra the deadlock on this issue would persist. All efforts have been made by the state government to expedite the process but six years have passed without any solution and as a result Gujarat would have to suffer.

According to a survey at present the state has been able to utilize only 40 per cent of the Naramada waters while the rest flows to sea as state government has not been allowed to create a required mechanism at the dam at Kevadia.The deadlock could break only if the state government in consultation with the union government take the partner states into confidence and they created the basic required under the agreement of the Narmada project in accordance with the recommendations of the tribunal set up by the centre in seventies.

Next to Narmada domestic water supply pipeline the state government has now embarked on an ambitious project of creating irrigation facilities with the Naramada waters and the first phase of this project has commenced ibn Vadodadar and Bharuch districts. The project envisages to create irrigation facilities to cover 18 lakh hectares of cultivable land in Gujarat.This works is being carried out by the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam SSNL. It is learnt that project would entail expenditure to the tune of Rs.30,000 crore to the SSNL. It will also supply drinking water to 3,300 villages , 62 talukas and 14 districts in the command area of the Naramda project.