Vol. 10 · pages 321–325

304 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Use Of Water Wealth The Labour Member continued : “Given the resources, why has Orissa continued to be so poor, so backward and so wretched a province ? The only answer I can give is that Orissa has not found the best method of utilising her water wealth. Much effort has undoubtedly been spent in inquiring into the question of floods. As early as 1872, there was a general enquiry by Mr. Rehnand. I do not know what happened to his report. Nothing seems to have been done thereafter till 1928. From that year down to 1945, there have been a series of committees appointed to tackle this problem. “The Orissa Flood Enquiry Committee of 1928 was presided over by the well-known Chief Engineer of Bengal, Mr. Adams Williams. In 1937, the enquiry was entrusted in the able hands of Sri M. Visvesvarayya, who submitted two reports—one in 1937 and another in 1939. His work was followed by the Orissa Flood Advisory Committee. The Committee submitted a preliminary report in 1938 and continued its work till 1942, during which period it submitted three interim reports. The latest effort in that direction was made as recently as March 15,1945, when a Flood Conference was convened at Cuttack by the Government of Orissa. “With all respect to the members of these committees, I am sorry to say they did not bring the right approach to bear on the problem. They were influenced by the idea that water in excessive quantity was an evil, that when water comes in excessive quantity, what needs to be done is to let it run into the sea in an orderly flow. Both these views are now regarded as grave misconceptions, as positively dangerous from the point of view of the good of the people. Conservation Of Water “It is wrong to think water in excessive quantity is an evil. Water can never be so excessive as to be an evil. Man suffers more from lack of water than from excess of it. The trouble is that nature is not only niggardly in the amount of water it gives, it is also erratic in its distribution—alternating between drought and storm. But this cannot alter the fact that water is wealth. Water being the wealth of the people and its distribution being uncertain, the correct approach is not to complain against nature but to conserve water.

305 MULTI-PURPOSE PLAN FOR DEVELOPMENT OF ORISSA’S RIVERS “If conservation of water is mandatory from the point of view of public good, then obviously the plan of embankments is a wrong plan. It is a mean which does not subserve the end, namely conservation of water, and must, therefore, be abandoned. Orissa delta is not the only area where there is so much amount of water and there is so much amount of evil proceeding from that water. The United States of America had the same problem to face. Some of these rivers—Missouri, Miami and Tennessee—have given rise to the same problem in the U.S.A. “Orissa must, therefore, adopt the method which the U.S.A. adopted in dealing with the problem of its rivers. That method is to dam rivers at various points to conserve water permanently in reservoirs. There arc many purposes which such reservoirs can serve besides irrigation. I am told that if it were possible to store the entire run off of the Mahanadi it will be enough to irrigate thereby a million acres, provided that much area was available. Water stored in the reservoirs can be used for generating electric power. “If in the midst of its natural resources, Orissa has remained an industrially undeveloped area, it is due to want of cheap power to run its factories. Here there will be abundance of electric power, more than Orissa can hope to consume for a long time to come. Another use to which this water could be put to is navigation. “Navigation in India has had a very chequered history. During the rule of the East India Company, provision for internal navigation occupied a very prominent part in the public works budget of the Company’s Government. Many of the navigation canals we have in India today—and you have one in Orissa itself—are remnants of that policy. Railways came in later, and for a time the policy was to have both railways and canal navigation. By 1875, there arose a great controversy in which the issue was railways versus canals. The battle for canals was fought bravely by the late Sir Arthur Cotton—one of the few engineers with big ideas. Unfortunately supporters of Railways won. “I am not quite happy about this victory of railways over canals. Much more annoying is the ignorant opinion of supporters of railways that canals must go because they do not pay, without knowing that if the canals do not pay it is not because they cannot pay but because

306 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES their capacity to pay has been terribly mutilated by leaving them uncompleted. I am sure that internal navigation cannot be neglected in the way in which it has been in the past. We ought to borrow a leaf from Germany and Russia in this matter and not only revive reconstruction of our old canals but make new ones also and not to sacrifice them to the exigencies of railways.” Special Feature The Labour Member reiterated that the storage scheme, as applied to the rivers of Orissa, will have this special feature, namely, that it will not only give irrigation and electricity, but also provide a long line of internal navigation. “I am told it may be possible to connect Chandbali to Sambalpur and beyond by a navigable inland waterway by construction of, say, some three dams at (1) the point of its debouche from the hills (seven miles above Naraj), (2) Tikkirpara and (3) above Sambalpur. If this plan works out, there will be a navigable channel for 350 miles which could be maintained all the year round, affording a cheap and convenient artery for passenger and goods traffic. Imagine the possibility coastal craft or light vessels going right into the interior on a canal extending from the sea via Cuttack to Sambalpur, and beyond into the Central Provinces. Here is a scheme which converts forces of evil into powers of good. “Orissa wants to get rid of the evils of floods. Orissa wants to get rid of malaria—and other—to use American phraseology—‘low-income’ diseases causing ill-health and corroding the stamina of her people. Orissa wants to raise the standard of living of her people and to advance her prosperity by irrigation, by navigation and by producing cheap electrical power. All these purposes can fortunately be achieved by one single plan, namely, to build reservoirs and store the water which is flowing in its rivers. Multi-purpose Reservoirs “I am, therefore, glad to note that the Orissa Flood Protection Committee held in 1945, struck the right note when it said that the final solution of Orissa’s water problem should be sought in the construction of multi-purpose reservoirs. My comment is that this should be regarded as the only method and treated as an immediate programme

307 MULTI-PURPOSE PLAN FOR DEVELOPMENT OF ORISSA’S RIVERS rather than as an ultimate aim. The potentiality of this project may not be clear to everybody. But it is indeed very great. It is desirable that some idea of its immensity should be conveyed to the Government of Orissa, the representatives of the States of Orissa and the people of Orissa as well, so that their interest in the project may be aroused. “A comparative statement may well give such an idea. One hears of the lake made at the Boulder Dam in the U.S.A. as the biggest man-made lake in the world. We also hear of the Mettur Dam in Madras and the proposed Tungabhadra Dam in Hyderabad, which are likely to be its rivals. Compared with the first, the total volume of water that flows annually through the Orissa rivers will fill three times the lake mentioned. Compared with the Mettur Dam in Madras and the Tungabhadra Dam in Hyderabad, it may be pointed out that the Mahanadi alone carries over 65 million acre-feet, which would be 30 times the capacity of the reservoir at the Mettur Dam in Madras and 20 times the capacity of the proposed Tungabhadra Dam. How much of this water we can economically and effectively store is a matter for investigation. The Government of Orissa, the States in Orissa and the people of Orissa should, therefore, regard themselves as lucky and proud of this project and determine and endeavour to make it a reality.” Dr. Ambedkar continued : The agenda for the meeting is a very modest one. It is (1) to consider the disirability of undertaking forthwith surveys and investigations of Orissa rivers with a view to the preparation of schemes of unified and multi-purpose development comprising (a) flood control, (b) navigation, (c) irrigation and drainage, (d) soil conservation, and (e) power development; (2) to consider the desirability of concentrating, in the first instance, on surveys and investigations on the Mahanadi river for control and development of that river ; (3) to examine the desirability of surveys and investigations being carried out by provincial governments in conjunction with, and under the general direction of, the Central Waterways, Irrigation and Navigation Commission.” “Our main purpose today is to see if we can agree on the necessity for a thorough survey and investigation of the natural resources and physical features of the region with a view to prepare a comprehensive scheme for its development. For a balanced appreciation of the situation it is necessary to carry out comprehensive surveys and investigations

308 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES with a view to ascertain the possibilities of irrigation, navigation, power development and their facilities in the delta as well as in the drainage area as a whole. Investigations so far carried out have been mostly limited to the delta, although some work had been done in 1862 on the survey of dam sites for small reservoirs on the five tributaries of the Mahanadi, namely, the Telcoma, the Ibcoma, the Maudcoma, the Hasd and the Jonk. “The Central Waterways, Irrigation and Navigation Commission constituted by the Government of India under the chairmanship of the able and well-known irrigation engineer, Rai Bahadur Khosla, is shortly going to initiate hydrological and other surveys of Orissa rivers as part of their enquiry. It will be necessary for provinces and states to undertake connected surveys in conjunction with, and under the general direction and supervision of, the Commission. Submergence Of Areas “Before closing”, Dr. Ambedkar observed, “I would like to draw the attention of the parties which have met at this conference to two points. They are intimately connected with the success of the project and about which they will have to make up their mind at an early date. First is their readiness to consider the question of submergence of land. Reservoirs formed by construction of dams will submerge large areas of land, both in Orissa and the Eastern States. If these dams are carried higher up the river or its tributaries, certain areas in the Central Provinces will also be submerged. This question will need to be considered in detail in relation to the over-all benefits of the integrated scheme.” “Submergence of areas will be inevitable if the waters of the rivers have to be conserved for beneficial use instead of being allowed to run waste and to work havoc en route. The resulting benefits from a scheme of united and multipurpose development should far outweigh loss of lands due to submergence. This project can be a success only if it is treated as a regional project. It cannot succeed with a local treatment. The province of Orissa will fail if it were to take up a project confined to its own boundaries. The same will be the reuslt if an Orissa State were to make a similar attempt. “The project being essentially regional, it raises the question of submergence of State and Provincial sovereignty to the extent