Obtención del extracto etanólico de Botoncillo (Acmella repens)

Canal irrigation projects in India are notorious for low efficiency, high rates of water loss, and accompanying problems of waterlogging and salinisation. This was general knowledge in India when the NPG started working. The SSP planners attempted to avoid these problems by learning from mistakes and shortcomings in previous large canal projects in India, and introducing a number of technological and managerial innovations. Indian irrigation efficiencies ranged from 30 to 40% on average, but with “good operation of systems” even unlined or partly lined systems could achieve 40 to 50% efficiency. “In lined systems, efficiencies upto 60 % are certainly considered achievable,” wrote NPG advisor D.T.Buch (1994:5). Former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India, D.T. Lakdawala, commended the NPG for its planning framework, stating that it was the “most discussed and best studied multi-river valley project” in India (Lakdawala 1995:1):

“Extreme care has been devoted to the study of past experience and avoid the errors. And yet, it has been credited with all the defects, observed and alleged, in earlier similar schemes. (...) Painstaking reseach, however, has been undertaken to see that none of these defects creeps into the SSP.” (Lakdawala 1995:2)

States in the Country by way of interdependence of one another. Perhaps there is no other measure which is more effective towards achieving national unity than such a national water grid" (Patel 1991b:80).

107 _{The idea for a river linking scheme dates back to the colonial irrigation pioneer Sir Arthur Cotton, and}

irrigation ministers in Independent India kept the idea alive through the 1960s and the 1970s with discussions of a “national water grid” (D'Souza 2003).

108_{“In my mind flashed the way in which Israel had been meeting the onslaughts of Syria and P.L.O. on its front}

from time to time: it had established agricultural kibbutz manned by reserve soldiers with full equipment and sophisticated weapons to keep a watch on the activities of its unfriendly neighbours. It was their job to withstand the first attack of the enemy till reinforcements from the Israel Army rushed to their rescue.” (Dalal 1991:1)

169 The project is “a break with the traditional planning of water development in India”, argues Alagh (1991a:11). He specifically mentions three innovative features of the project: the first is the use of modern computer technology to support a “densely populated Asiatic peasant based agriculture”, including computer-controlled canal system and real time monitoring of surface and groundwater aquifers; the second is the regionalisation of the command area into 13 regions based on agro-ecological characteristics; and the third is the realistic estimation of costs and benefits through identification of project components down to the field level and the use of data on “actual achievements of Gujarat farmers” (Alagh 1991a:11). A fourth innovation in water management is the adoption of the new model of participatory irrigation managament.

The innovations were applauded in the World Bank completion report which was prepared after the cancellation of the loan in 1993: “the project set excellent engineering, construction, and management standards by introducing many innovative features” (World Bank 1994:v) .

Technological innovations

The “intensive use of modern technology” included several measures to control water use, reduce water loss and prevent water logging. The generally low efficiency in water utilization in Indian canal irrigation is due partly to lack of control with the amount of water used by each farmer and partly due to water losses through seepage and evaporation during transmission. The Narmada Planning Group planned for a semi-automatic, computerized monitoring system for water use, permitting remote-monitoring of the volumes of water allocated to the various parts of the canal system. The Master Plan for the project describes this only briefly, as “a reliable communication and automatic control system will be installed for canal operation” and “water distribution will be rationed and delivery will be controlled” (Narmada Planning Group 1989:20). The details of this system were operationalised and designed through the 1980s and 1990s, among other things based on a study tour to the USA. The three-day USA study tour was organised by the US Bureau of Reclamation in April 1990

170 and the aim was to see the technical possibilities of modern canal irrigation109. Sanat Mehta described it to me as a “dream”, but a realistic dream.

“What was the dream, when we planned? The dream was that semiautomatic, computerised system. It is possible. And then this is what I saw in America: The fellow who was operating, he was sitting in his control room and showing us that I can decrease or increase the water while it is flowing to a certain place, if there is a message that there is a deficit.” (interview, Sanat Mehta, 4.3. 2006)

The computerised monitoring and semi-automatic canal system is presented as a key ingredient for SSP success. Sluices and gates will be automatically regulated and computer- monitored to ensure volumetric control of water delivery with the least response time (Alagh and Buch 1995). The root cause for the poor performance of previous canal irrigation systems “may be the lack of a scientific approach to their operation and management,” writes SSNNL engineer Joshi in an article describing the system (Joshi 2001:109). The SSP conveyance system is so large that it requires simultaneous operation of all the control structures, as “even a slight mismatch” between the amount of water available in the conveyance system and the outtake of water at critical points in the system “can endanger the system” (Joshi 2001:117)110. The remote-monitored system will have its Main Control Centre in Gandhinagar, and receive information from 15 Divisional Operation Centres (DOCs), which in turn receives information from 1400 regulating points, or RTUs:

“The RTU will receive the data sensed by various sensors (data such as water level, gate position, etc.), communicate this to the DOC, receive the command signals from the DOC and pass it on to the control cabinet so as to actuate the gate-hoist motor for raising or lowering the gate.” (Joshi 2001:119)

The implementation of this system has taken a very long time. A global tender for the computerisation of the project was not issued until 2006. Alagh was confident that this would help speed up the implementation of the project and prove the critics wrong: “The SSP Canals

109 _{They visited the Arizona Project Office and the Denver Office of Engineering and Research Laboratories, and}

met the technical expertise to discuss their interests as stated in the tour program: “Canal automation, construction of concrete lined canals, construction of underground power plants and general discussions related to large irrigation and hydro power facilities.” (US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation. 1990. “3-

Day Visitor Program for Mr Sanat Mehta, Chairman, Mr P.A.Raj, Vice Chairman, and Mr. S.M. Koshi, Member in charge of Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Environment, SSNNL, India”, document from Sanat Mehta‟s

archive)

110

Joshi mentions the example of the Saurashtra Branch Canal which at one place conveys water through a lift, pumping approximately 10,000 cusecs of water to a height of about 70 meters. If this pumping system fails (by the way, the only part of the conveyance system which relies on lifting water), the rest of the conveyance system will have to accommodate this enormous discharge of water.

171 are exposing the critics who first said the canal was not possible, then that water would not flow in it and now that its original design will be impossible” (Alagh 2006:101). As the remote monitoring and control system was finally underway and India‟s top engineering companies were bidding for the job, “the dream is on the way to reality of assured controlled water at the time of need” (Alagh 2006:101).

To prevent water seepage from the canals, the entire canal network from Main Canal to Subminor Canal would be lined with reinforced concrete. Secondly, the conjunctive use of groundwater and canal water will prevent water logging in the command area. Water logging happens when excessive application of canal water increases the groundwater table to the root zone of the plants. The NPG has planned for the installation of computer-monitored piezometers all over the command area111. If farmers fail to use ground water in conjunction with canal water, and the ground-water level reaches critical levels, government-installed tubewells will start pumping out water and release it into the canal system (Narmada Planning Group 1989). The planners therefore repeatedly argue that water logging because of the Sardar Sarovar Project is an impossibility (for example in Alagh 1991a).

Whereas some publications claim that water logging is impossible with the current infrastructure design, the environmental assessment of the command area showed that the risk of water logging in the command area is 5 to 7%, and that these low figures “entirely depend on quality of water management” (Alagh, Pathak et al. 1995:123). Still, the planners are confident that this poses no problem: “High canal efficiency is extremely conductive to better management of water logging and salinity. Sound and scientific water management is, thus, sure to mitigate likely environmental damages” (Alagh, Pathak et al. 1995:124)

Regionalisation and integrated scientific planning

Econometric modelling was important in the planning of the SSP. The aim of the planning of the distribution system for the Narmada water was to optimize the social benefits from the

111 _{A piezometer is a borehole designed to measure groundwater conditions. The planners explain the strategy:}

“Water quality measurements would be available for all these piezometers as well as for existing wells in advance and appropriate blending or irrigation strategies with saline groundwater doses followed by appropriate waterings of good canal water can always be planned. Most farmers of India irrigating in problematic command areas know this” (Government of Gujarat 1992:51).

172 Narmada water for the Gujarat economy as a whole. Because water is such a scarce commodity in Gujarat, its use had to be “so regulated and controlled that the marginal return to water in all the regions is the same and so also the marginal return in the various feasible combinations of crops is equal” (Lakdawala 1995:2). To this end, it was necessary to factor in both the geo-physical and the social absorption capacities of different regions of the proposed command area. The boundaries of the command of the major branches of the canal system were thus designed to follow the agro-ecological regionalization, taking into account the soils, drainage needs, and climate of each region (Narmada Planning Group 1989). The geophysical absorption capacities of the various regions determined the designed carrying capacities of the canals and thus the water allocation for various branches and distributaries of the canal system. Two zones, the Bara Tract of Bharuch and the Bhal area of Bhavnagar, are both coastal, low-lying zones with high risk of salinisation, and for these areas a special and limited irrigation policy is prescribed.

The planners also took into account the predicted social effects of water in each region, by modelling the farmers‟ likely behaviour after receiving irrigation water. The NPG commissioned a study of the likely migration patterns following increased irrigation from Pravin Visaria, one of the leading demographers of India (Alagh, interview, 2006). Data from his surveys and from a cost-of-cultivation data set available for all regions of India were used to develop econometric models of the farmers‟ likely cropping responses under irrigation, given the local rainfall, soil characteristics, available technology, and relative prices of crops. From these models they estimated employment generation as a consequence of irrigation, and gave an extra allocation of water to areas with high potential for employment generation by valuing wages generated with a shadow wage rate in the model. Visaria‟s studies had estimated were unemployment would remain a big problem, and more water was allocated to these areas. Alagh explains the approach in a paper from 2006:

“Economists have for long worked on this problem and have developed „acreage response models‟. These essentially postulate that the acreage allocation of the farmer follows profit maximising behaviour and depends on rainfall and its distribution, irrigation, the agricultural technology available and relative prices. The use of these models for irrigation planning would mean that the farmer‟s behaviour is studied and statistically estimated through acreage allocation models for an area of the kind with due consideration of the agro-climatic characteristics of the region in the command.” (Alagh 2006:92-3)

173 He argues that agro-ecological regional planning of the SSP model enables a “more scientific” utilisation of water resources by taking a holistic view of soil type, topography, water resources and irrigation facilities and relating these to output and employment, and that the SSP approach should be adopted in other canal irrigation projects in India (Alagh 2006). For the first time in India, argues Alagh, “modern economic, econometric and social science techniques were used to design the engineering configuration of some of the important structures of the project” (Alagh 1991a:12). “We are proud of it,” he said to me:

“I am a student of Lawrence Klein, the Nobel Laureate of Economics112

. And I think it is one of the finest pieces of work that has been done anywhere in terms of this kind of modelling. And we did it.” (interview 13.3.2006)

The NPG developed plans for the optimal cropping pattern in each region of the command area, a modelling exercise aimed at maximising “the returns to water by choosing that crop combination which economises on water consumption” (Narmada Planning Group 1989:100). The references to the planned cropping pattern are many in the planning publications, as assurances of the benefits that will accrue from the project. However, the modelling of future cropping patterns is an entirely theoretical exercise through which possible crop sets for each region are decided based on 1) current crop choices given relative crop prices, rainfall, and irrigation, and 2) the assumption that the farmers do not take more than their allocated share of Narmada water. They did not consider the potential conflict between the individual interests of profit maximizing farmers and the social interests of the Gujarat state in removing regional disparities ensured by allocating more water to areas where water is likely to create more employment:

“Crop plans were designed on three considerations. First, basic agronomic features would limit the possibilities of choices available in each region. Second, the farmers would make his choice on the basis of the available technologies and their development, the economic opportunities available to him through the development of markets and relative prices and the amount and timing of water available. Systems were developed to understand his responses to likely developments in each aspect. Third, the crop planning problem then was to take full cognizance of his responses, but to determine water application in each region taking into account the need to maximize the return to water, subject to the cost of the system, giving explicit consideration to social objectives like

112 _{Lawrence Klein was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1980 for his work in}

174 removal of regional disparities in income and employment generation within the command.” (Narmada Planning Group 1989:252)

This method of development planning has a big potential, argues Alagh:

“With these kinds of calculations, if an explicit weight has to be given to generate more employment in some poverty-stricken region, this could be done in a quantifiable manner.” (Alagh 2006:97)

The only drawback is that the proposed cropping pattern cannot be enforced. The planners recognize in Planning for prosperity that “the main problem is (...) how to influence the farmers‟ decision in favour of the preferred crop set” (Narmada Planning Group 1989:108). The chosen solution for the SSP lies in a combination of persuasion through extension services and a policy of strict rationing of water. If the farmer knows how much water he will get, he will not choose a crop which requires more, the NPG holds. The „crop sanction‟ procedure of Andhra Pradesh, in which water is only given to sanctioned crops in a given area, is not adopted by Gujarat. Although the canal water will be strictly controlled, the conjunctive use with groundwater will make more water available further and introduce an element of flexibility in the crop choices (Narmada Planning Group 1989).

The NPG members express a strong belief in the ability of „science‟ and a „scientific approach‟ to optimise the SSP. The members of the NPG were academics, and argue repeatedly that their approach is laudably „scientific‟. One of the first activities of the NPG was to commission base-line studies of the 62 talukas in the command area of the Sardar Sarovar canals. Study teams from various research institutes and colleges in Gujarat were asked to carry out a socio-economic benchmark study of an area of around 6 talukas each. These socio-economic surveys profiled the agriculture and socio-economic conditions in different regions of the command area and formed the basis of the agricultural plans, water allocation and evaluations of the social benefits of the project (Narmada Planning Group 1989). A repeated claim from the SSP planners is that the SSP is the most studied and best planned project in India. Lists of preparatory studies are provided in many of the pro-SSP publications, to prove this point. Consultancies from India and abroad were contracted to carry out planning studies. Also for the resettlement and rehabilitation part, the planners claim that a “scientific approach” distinguishes the SSP from other development projects in India. A comprehensive development project like the SSP has to “be planned on the basis of scientific studies”, writes sociology professor Vidyut Joshi under the heading “Rehabilitation Studies

175 and Scientific Planning” (1991:53). The SSP is the first project in India to conduct pre- rehabilitation studies, he writes, and having been in charge of these studies himself, is confident about the quality of these studies. But “the academic input has not stopped here. Three academic institutions have been given the task of monitoring the rehabilitation practices” (Joshi 1991:53).

Managerial innovations: Participatory Irrigation Management

As we have seen, prudent water management is critical for project success. The Narmada Planning Group was painfully aware of this if we are to judge by the numerous iterations of this point in the planning texts from the 1990s. NPG advisor D.T.Buch, for example, wrote in a paper on the managerial innovations of the SSP: “There is, thus, an imperative need of having a culture of management through farmers‟ organisations after ensuring a reasonable system infrastructure” (1994:5, emphasis added). The model of management of water through user groups was not envisioned in the first planning phase from 1980-83. According to the master plan Planning for prosperity, successful village-level management of Narmada water would be ensured by volumetric controls, rotational water supply “based on the existing models of Punjab and Haryana”, and irrigation supplied to chaks of 8 to 20 hectares to ensure the smallest possible number of farmers (“not more than 4 or 5”) serviced below each outlet. The management model to be adopted in the SSP, Participatory Irrigation Management, was still not known in the early 1980s. When this model became widely known, the SSP planners eagerly embraced it, as it solved one of their problems.

On the larger scale, above the Minor Canal outlet, the installation of computer-monitored