Indian River linking project

Inter Link canals in red. Source - The Hindustan Times, July 3 2003

What is it?This project is to link 36 rivers in India to divert water from major rivers, including the Ganges and Brahmaputra. Several major dams and more than 1000 kilometers of canals are envisaged, including schemes to ‘lift’ the waters of the river Godavari in southern India. Himalayan waterways of 4,500 km length at 500 m contour are to connect all tributaries of Ganga and Brahmaputra. The proffered reasons for this project are mitigation of drought and floods, hydropower generation and irrigationPreliminary estimates by environment groups suggest that more than 7800 square kilometers of land could be flooded and three million people forced off their land. The plan – estimated to cost between $70 billion and $200 billion - could take at least 14 years to implement. Indian engineers in the US, headed by Texan power engineer Sam Kannappan are lobbying President Bush to persuade the World Bank to back the scheme.
How does it affect Bangladesh? Many of Bangladesh's 250 rivers originate from the Himalayas and run through India before flushing out to the Bay of Bengal Bangladeshi Government scientists estimated that even a 10 to 20 per cent reduction in the water flow to the country could dry out great areas for much of the year. More than 80 per cent of Bangladesh's 20 million small farmers grow rice and depend on water that has flowed through India.
India has in the past constructed dams and barrages without informing Bangladesh.

The most well know dispute between India and Bangladesh is over India’s construction of the Farakka Barrage on the Ganges. The project was made public in 1951 and completed in December 1974. On April 18, 1975, India informed Bangladesh that they would test the canal for 41 days, but continued to divert water well past the testing period and de facto commissioned the barrage. A serious drought resulted in Bangladesh in the first half of 1976. After prolonged negotiations, a 30-year Ganges Water Sharing Agreement was finally concluded between the two governments.
What does international law say about such matters?
The International Water Law Project explains the 'Principle of Sic Utere Tuo Ut Alienum Non Laedas and the Obligation Not to Cause Appreciable Harm'

Customary international law obligates states not to use, or allow the use of, their territory for acts contrary to the rights of other states. This principle, often expressed as sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas, receives wide recognition today as a general principle of international law...Moreover, international project funding organizations, such as the World Bank, have indicated that they will not provide financial support for projects that are likely to cause appreciable harm to the territory of other states.

The general commentary of International Law Association states, any use of water by a basin state, whether upper or lower, that denies an equitable sharing of uses by a co-basin state, conflicts with the community of interests of all basin states. Disputant states are to negotiate in good faith, failing in which the matter may be brought to the UN's attention pursuant to Article 33 of the UN Charter.

Water flow into Bangladesh. Neither Nepal nor Bangladesh, which are upper and lower riparian countries respectively, have been formally consulted on this project.

What other projects affect Bangladesh? India is constructing dams on other rivers flowing into Bangladesh, including the Teesta and Gomati rivers. The Teesta Project, where work has only recently started - and is to be completed by 2007 - has already resulted in the river bed drying up inside Bangladesh .

A proposed dam in Manipur, the Tipaimukh Hydroelectric Multipurpose Project,
threaten the flow of water into two main rivers flowing into Sylhet, the northwestern part of Bangladesh. Work has already started on this dam. (Map not to scale. Source - July 22, 2003, Dhaka New Age)
What is the time frame of the River Linking project?
Preparation of the plans has already started, according to the project site kept by the Government of India, and the project is to be completed by 2016. Please click here for the schedule. In the event the link is not working, please click here for a copy of the schedule updated periodically)

It is suggested by the Indian Government’s National Water Development Agency that the project implementation does not have to await the completion of feasibility studies for all links. Please click here to view excerpts from the NWDA document.

What has been the response by people to the Indian Government's plans?Opposition to the project from environmentalists is growing within India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

"None of the feasibility and impact studies on this gigantic project have been put in the public domain”, said Professor Jayanto Bandyopadhyay of the Indian Institute of Management at Calcutta (Kolkata) adding his concern that it was a ‘threat to science’ that the government appeared to brook no discussion on the matter.

Sudhirendar Sharma, formerly with the World Bank, is a water expert and Director of the Delhi-based Ecological Foundation, writes that

The fact that the legislative assembly of the most literate state [Kerala] in the country has shown uncommon wisdom [by rejecting plans to divert water away from the state, vindicates the stand by ecologists.

... rather than sound economic or environmental principles, what is now driving the project is political calculation, with plenty of double-standards evident.

Medha Patkar and L S Aravinda (National Alliance of People's Movements & Initiatives) writes:

At the cost of local irrigation projects of the true and tested kind that have kept India self-sufficient. In this esoteric experiment of Inter-linking rivers, India itself is the guinea pig.

Do we have examples of similar projects elsewhere? There are many examples of similar schemes to link rivers which ended in disasters. Nearly 100 dams in the US are being removed to restore their rivers between 1999 and 2002, with a $8b plan to revive some of California’s rivers. The death of the Aral Sea due to the diversion of two rivers in the erstwhile Soviet Union that flowed into it is perhaps the most famous disaster from a river diversion scheme