Upper Wardha project: Has it really proven beneficial for farmers?


Published in The Hitavada on June 13, 2013

 Upper Wardha: 48 years of farmers’ deception

* Cost escalation, poor quality work, diversion of water have raised serious questions about utility of the multi-crore irrigation project

By Kartik Lokhande
Dreams, dreams, and dreams. People of Vidarbha region are first shown dreams of various irrigation projects. Then, there are long delays on part of various Government machineries. Finally, when the dreams are ‘realised’, policy decisions are taken at the level of the Government and water from these projects is diverted to non-agricultural purposes, leaving the farmers high and dry in rainfed region.
Though there are several such cases in the region, the case in point now is Upper Wardha irrigation project. Why this project? Because, despite cry of the farmers for long, it has caught attention of politicians only of late. The project will be in news for next two days as the main opposition party in Maharashtra -- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- is embarking on a two-day ‘Sinchan Shodh Yatra’ from Simbhora, the site of Upper Wardha dam, from Tuesday. What comes out of the BJP’s rally will remain to be seen, but against this backdrop, one must know the current status of the project.
The project got administrative approval (AA) on February 13, 1965. Then, its estimated cost was Rs 13.05 crore. The districts of Amravati and Wardha were to get benefit of irrigation from this project. In Amravati district alone, 54,077 hectares of agricultural land in Morshi, Chandur Railway, Dhamangaon, and Teosa tehsils was supposed to get irrigation benefits out of the project.
For as long as 15 years, nothing happened. From 1979-80, some amount was spent steadily on the project, but not on actual work. After a long gap of 30 years, need was felt to put the project on fast track. On December 29, 1995, the cost of the project was revised for the first time. The revision to Rs 302.78 crore was 2220.15 per cent increase compared to the cost at the time of AA. Within four years, in 1999, another revision by Rs 359.08 crore took the project cost to Rs 661.86 crore. After seven years, in 2006, project cost rose to Rs 951.33 crore. In next three years, in 2009, the cost was revised again to Rs 1,376.64 crore. This time, cost escalated by Rs 425.31 crore.
Thus, in first 30 years, cost was revised by Rs 289.73 crore. And, in 14 years between 1995 and 2009, the cost rose by Rs 1,073.86 crore!
Meanwhile, to complete the project works, Maharashtra Government received central assistance of Rs 403.368 crore under Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) between 1997-98 and 2008-09. In April 2011, the State submitted completion report to the Central Government. As against the revised cost of Rs 1,376.64 crore, by October 2012, an amount of Rs 1,125.5002 crore was spent on the project. By the time, some new problems pertaining to irrigation demand had come up. Accordingly, people’s representatives demanded lift irrigation schemes at Gurukunj and Pathargaon -- requiring an additional cost of Rs 217.53 crore -- to be incorporated as part of Upper Wardha project.

Diversion of water for non-farming purposes Considering the huge expenditure and long delay of 48 years, farmers in Amravati district should have got benefits of the massive investment of public funds. Unfortunately, this is not the case as far as Upper Wardha project is concerned.
By the period of Central assistance under AIBP coming to an end, on February 22, 2008, a high-level committee of ministers decided to allocate (divert) 87.60 million cubic metre (MCM) was from the dam to Sophiya Power Project. As against created irrigation potential of 75,080 hectares, such a diversion of water would deprive 23,219 hectares agricultural area of irrigation benefits. And, this is not an observation of any activist. In fact, this has come on record of State Legislative Council in a reply to a starred question. During budget session of State Legislature, Industries Minister Narayan Rane told Legislative Council that allocation of water to Sophiya Power Project could affect irrigation of 23,219 hectares. The matter got entangled in legal complications.
In admission of Chief Engineer of Water Resources Department (WRD), Amravati, The Government has granted permission to reserve 77.329 MCM water from Upper Wardha project for eight schemes for drinking water supply. Further, 10 MCM water has been reserved for Nandgaon Peth industrial area. Another 14.735 MCM was reserved for non-agricultural purpose. All this was reserved apart from water allocated to Sophiya Power Project. In sum, 189.664 MCM water was diverted for non-agricultural purposes.
As against designed storage capacity of 678.27 MCM, actual storage as in October 2012 was 564.05 MCM. Compared to actual storage, 33.62 per cent water was diverted to non-agricultural purposes! Interestingly, another 35.92 MCM was diverted to Amravati Thermal Power Company, but due to public pressure, the allocation was cancelled. Else, it would have taken diversion of water from the project for non-agricultural purposes to 40 per cent of actual storage.

Water availability and poor utilisation With 28 per cent of the water storage in the dam pledged to non-agricultural purposes, let us examine the condition of utilisation of remaining water.
Political leaders wanting water from the project to be made available to farmers have exposed several aspects in this regard from time-to-time. According to them, there was growth of vegetation in minor and main canals. At many places, work was in dilapidated condition. Water did not reach farms as grass and waste blocked canals. Canal lining was damaged at several places. Leakage and percolation led to wastage of water. At various places, canal was at lower level than farms as a result of which farmers were unable to get water for irrigation. As far as actual irrigation was concerned, it was only 40.65 per cent of irrigation potential created.
Of course, efforts were made to form water users’ associations involving farmers. As against target of 162, a total of 171 such associations were formed. However, as against target of Rs 1,83,64,300, recovery of water charges at the end of October 2012 was only Rs 92.702 lakh, which was 50.48 per cent of the target.

Escalation of project cost 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Admin Approval     Estimated Cost     Date of Approval
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
AA                          Rs 13.05 crore     February 13, 1965
First revised AA    Rs 302.78 cr         December 29, 1995
Second revised AA Rs 661.86 cr        July 31, 1999
Third revised AA    Rs 951.33 cr        March 29, 2006
Fourth revised AA Rs 1,376.64 cr      July 13, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Expenditure incurred, irrigation
potential created, actual irrigation  

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year         Expenditure        Irrigation                Actual
                 incurred              potential created    irrigation
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1979-80     Rs 4.9060 cr       --                              --
1980-81     Rs 6.6663 cr       --                              --
1981-82     Rs 11.4803 cr     --                              --
1982-83     Rs 12.7443 cr     --                              --
1983-84     Rs 14.2970 cr     --                              --
1984-85     Rs 12.1241 cr     --                              --
1985-86     Rs 13.1099 cr     --                              --
1986-87     Rs 13.3111 cr     --                               --
1987-88     Rs 12.6346 cr     --                              --
1988-89     Rs 12.4035 cr     --                              --
1989-90     Rs 22.3633 cr     --                              --
1990-91     Rs 21.2328 cr     --                              --
1991-92     Rs 19.3400 cr     --                              --
1994-95     N.A.                    15,034 Ha            2,338 Ha
1995-96     Rs 46.9900 cr     30,345 Ha            1,091 Ha
1996-97     Rs 36.8600 cr     37,822 Ha            1,062 Ha
1997-98     Rs 36.1200 cr     46,802 Ha            1,445 Ha
1998-99     Rs 34.3400 cr     50,065 Ha            3,519 Ha
1999-00     Rs 35.6500 cr     59,596 Ha            6,030 Ha
2000-01     Rs 36.1560 cr     61,335 Ha            9,732 Ha
2001-02     Rs 24.7079 cr     62,657 Ha            9,110 Ha
2002-03     Rs 23.1982 cr     62,848 Ha            9,697 Ha
2003-04     Rs 38.8408 cr     67,629 Ha            13,303 Ha
2004-05     Rs 27.9701 cr     72,024 Ha            16,890 Ha
2005-06     Rs 30.5348 cr     75,080 Ha            16,606 Ha
2006-07     Rs 43.8566 cr     75,080 Ha            27,543 Ha
2007-08     Rs 84.6071 cr     75,080 Ha            38,211 Ha
2008-09     Rs 70.8912 cr     75,080 Ha            13,852 Ha
2009-10     Rs 34.6438 cr     75,080 Ha            31,060 Ha
2010-11     Rs 70.3732 cr     75,080 Ha            32,942 Ha
2011-12     Rs 38.0245 cr     75,080 Ha            30,517 Ha
2012-13     Rs 19.3756 cr     75,080 Ha            N.A.
(Oct 2012)
Total     Rs 1,125.5002 cr
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Utilisation of irrigation
potential created

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Year             Irrigation                  Actual         %age
                     potential created     irrigation
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2008-09        75,080 Ha              13,852 Ha     18.45
2009-10        75,080 Ha              31,060 Ha     41.37
2010-11        75,080 Ha              32,942 Ha     43.88
2011-12        75,080 Ha              30,517 Ha     40.65
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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