4. Overview for Inter-linking of Rivers Programme in India

The speech addresses on one hand the session theme. On the other hand, it brings out the relevant information on ILR type past interventions or present plans of about two dozen countries of the world, to mitigate impacts of natural disasters whose incidence seems to be growing. Seemingly, the distress caused is indicating an increasing trend possibly as increasing numbers of people are settling down in disaster prone areas, every passing year. Unfortunately, the economically weaker sections of people don't afford habitat locations away from impact areas and hence get affected frequently and intensively. The likely scale and intensity of disasters due to the possible global climate change adds a new dimension to the subject. Droughts and floods along with cyclones are the main water related disasters. Landslides/Avalanches also mainly occur due to geo-technical unstability aggravated by lubricating and infiltrating water. There is no way to wish the water related disasters away, as they are climate related, on which mankind has but little control. One can only try to manage them and reduce their severity (mitigate them) only to a certain extent. Beyond that limit, one has to learn to live with them. Cyclones cause floods but also provide more water, which if held back and deployed through reservoirs enhance beneficial impacts. Unfortunately, such impacts are rarely identified, quantified or attributed to cyclones. Droughts grow/develop over a longer time frame, sap the affected society over still longer period, whereas the floods and their impacts occur in much shorter time but can have longer term impacts like droughts.The impacts of these disasters and their multiplier effects on economies, national development and security of affected populations are well known but again are not adequately quantified to provide financial justification for undertaking mitigative measures.