April 18 – GS1/Geography: 2026 | UPSC Daily Answer Writing Practice PDF Download

Q1: The interlinking of rivers can provide viable solutions to the multi-dimensional inter related problems of droughts, floods and interrupted navigation. Critically examine. (UPSC GS1 Mains )

Answer:

The interlinking of river project is a Civil Engineering project, which aims to connect Indian rivers through reservoirs and canals. The farmers will not have to depend on the monsoon for cultivation and also the excess or lack of water can be overcome during flood or drought. All interlinking schemes are aimed at transferring of water from one river system to another or by lifting across natural basins. 

• The project will build 30 links and close to 3000 storages to connect 37 Himalayan and Peninsular rivers to form a gigantic South Asian water grid. The Himalayan section has 14 links, and is expected to transport 33,000 gigalitres of water per year. The peninsular component has 16 links and will transport 141,000 gigalitres per year. 
• The interlinking of rivers has two components: the Himalayan and the Peninsular. Many large-scale water transfer schemes have been planned and implemented in other countries also. South-north water transfer project, China :An ambitious plan to link Yangtze river basin in the south with the yellow river basin in the north, construction of the South-north water transfer project (SNWTP) began on 2002. 
• Significance: India receives most of its rain during monsoon season from June to September, most of it falls in northern and eastern part of India, the amount of rainfall in southern and western part are comparatively low. It will be these places which will have shortage of water. Interlinking of rivers will help these areas to have water throughout the year. This will cut farmers dependence on monsoon rains by bringing millions of hectares of cultivatable land under irrigation. 
• Crop productivity would increase and so would revenues for the State. Even one bad monsoon has a direct and debilitating economic impact. The river linking project will ease the water shortages in western and southern India while mitigating the impacts of recurrent floods in eastern India. 
• Viable solutions it can provide to the multi-dimensional inter related problems of droughts, floods and interrupted navigation are: 
• Inter Basin Water Transfers is necessarily required to overcome the water scarcity and flooding situations in the regions/basins. 

These are needed to enhance water utility and reduce water wastage of water surplus areas in the following manner: 

• As most of the Himalayan rivers are fed by glacier melt and those in peninsular India are rainfed, those two components face different water supply constraints. The Himalayan section depends on stable rates of glacial formation and melt, while the peninsula component depends on steady monsoon events. The scheme broadly envisions transporting water from the relatively wet northwest of the country to the drier east. 
• The Ganga Basin, Brahmaputra basin sees floods almost every year. In order to avoid this, the water from these areas has to be diverted to other areas where there is scarcity of water. This can be achieved by linking the rivers. There is a two way advantage with this – floods will be controlled and scarcity of water will be reduced. 
• The Ken-Betwa link, another project that is close to being started, involves the construction of a 231 kilometre canal to transfer water from the Ken to the Betwa river. It will provide water to the drought-prone Bundel khand region between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. 
• The aim is to conserve monsoon flows for irrigation and hydropower generation, along with flood control. 
• The linkage will transfer surplus flows of the Kosi, Gandak and Ghagra to the west. A link between the Ganga and Yamuna is also proposed to transfer the surplus water to drought-prone areas of Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat. 
• The river interlinking scheme was launched as a solution to the persistence of hunger and water insecurity in Indian society. It is hoped that the transfer of water from surplus areas to regions with a water deficit will increase Indian food production and lower food insecurity. Mahanadi-Godavari link project  NWDA reported that Godavari and Mahanadi river basins are water surplus basins. 
• The joint surpluses water of these basins after accounting in basin uses in closing stage of improvement can be transferred to fulfill the water requirement of water deficit basins in South upto river Gundar via Mahanadi-Godavari-Krishna-Pennar-Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar river linkages. According to the Government of Odisha surveys, the proposed dam turned into having submergence of 59,400 ha. 

Interlinking of rivers for navigation: 

• The involves a large-scale engineering intervention to shift water from the Brahmaputra and lower Ganga basins in eastern India to water scarce regions of western and central India through the construction of reservoirs, dams and over 14,000 kilometres of canals. The project aims to balance uneven water flow in different river basins. 
• The project has invited the wrath of environmentalists who fear that linking rivers would lead to an irreversible ecological disaster
• The large scale movement of cargo, ships and barges can only happen once inter-river connectivity and routes are in place. Conservationists point to the government’s nonchalant attitude towards river dynamics while planning such projects. 
• “Every river has its own character which needs to be respected. To give just one example, mixing of water from one polluted river with another less polluted river can have serious consequences corrupting the entire system,” Conclusion: Interlinking of rivers has its pros and cons, but given the economic, political, and environmental implications, it may not be a wise decision to carry out this project at a centralized national level. Instead, interlinking of rivers may be pursued in a decentralized manner, and more sustainable ways like rainwater harvesting should be promoted to mitigate floods and droughts.