Narmada Bachao Andolan vs. Union of India - International ...

that ‘[t]he populations concerned shall not be removed without their free consent from their habitual territoriesexcept in accordance with national laws and regulations for reasons relating to national security, or in the interestof national economic development or of the health of the said populations’.87. The said Article clearly suggested that when the removal of the tribal population is necessary as an exceptionalmeasure, they shall be provided with land of quality at least equal to that of the land previously occupied by themand they shall be fully compensated for any resulting loss or injury. The rehabilitation package contained in theAward of the Tribunal as improved further by the State of Gujarat and the other States prime facie shows that theland required to be allotted to the tribals is likely to be equal, if not better, than what they had owned.88. The allegation that the said project was not in the national or public interest is not correct seeing the need ofwater for burgeoning population which is most critical and important. The population of India, which is now onebillion, is expected to reach a figure between 1.5 billion and 1.8 billion in the year 2050, would necessitate theneed of 2,788 billion cubic meter of water annually in India to be above water stress zone and 1,650 billion cubicmeter to avoid being water-scarce country. The main source of water in India is rainfall which occurs in about 4months in a year and the temporal distribution of rainfall is so uneven that the annual averages have very littlesignificance for all practical purposes. According to the Union of India, one third of the country is always underthreat of drought not necessarily due to deficient rainfall but many times due to its uneven occurrence. To feed theincreasing population, more food grain is required and effort has to be made to provide safe drinking water, which,at present, is a distant reality for most of the population specially in the rural areas. Keeping in view the need toaugment water supply, it is necessary that water storage capacities have to be increased adequately to ward off thedifficulties in the event of monsoon failure as well as to meet the demand during dry season. It is estimated that bythe year 2050 the country needs to create storage of at least 600 billion cubic metre against the existing storage of174 billion cubic metre.89. Dams play a vital role in providing irrigation for food security, domestic and industrial water supply, hydroelectricpower and keeping flood waters back. On full development, the Narmada has a potential of irrigating over 6million hectares of land and generating 3,000 MW of power. The present stage of development is very low withonly 3 to 4 MAF of water being used by the party states for irrigation and drinking water against 28 MAF availabilityof water at 75 percent dependability as fixed by NWDT and about 100 MW power developed. 85 percent of thewater is estimated as flowing waste to sea. The project will provide safe and clean drinking water to 8,215 villagesand 135 towns in Gujarat and 131 villages in desert areas of Jalore district of Rajasthan, though against these only241 villages are getting submerged partially and 4 villages fully due to the project.90. The cost and benefit of the project were examined by the World Bank in 1990 and the following passagespeaks for itself:The argument in favour of the Sardar Sarovar Project is that the benefits are so large that they substantiallyoutweigh the costs of the immediate human and environmental disruption. Without the dam, the longterm costs for people would be much greater and lack of an income source for future generations wouldput increasing pressure on the environment. If the waters of the Narmada River continue to flow to thesea unused there appears to be no alternative to escalating human deprivation, particularly in the dryareas of Gujarat. The project has the potential to feed as many as 20 million people, provide domesticand industrial water to about 30 million, employ about 1 million, and provide valuable peak electricpower in an area with high unmet power demand (farm pumps often get only a few hours power perday). In addition, recent research shows substantial economic ‘multiplier’ effects (investment andemployment triggered by development) from irrigation development. Set against the futures of about70,000 project affected people, even without the multiplier effect, the ratio of beneficiaries to affectedpersons is well over 100:1.There is merit in the contention of the respondents that there would be a positive impact on preservation ofecology as a result from the project. The SSP would be making positive contribution for preservation of environmentin several ways. The project, by taking water to drought-prone and arid parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan, wouldeffectively arrest ecological degradation which was returning to make these areas inhabitable due to salinityingress, advancement of desert, ground water depletion, fluoride and nitrite affected water and vanishing greencover. The ecology of water scarcity areas is under stress and transfer of Narmada water to these areas will lead tosustainable agriculture and spread of green cover. There will also be improvement of fodder availability which15