The beginning of the nineteenth century, however, marked colonial reconfiguration of irrigation regime by undertaking large canal projects driven by an ambition to commodify water and generate revenue (D’Souza 2002, 2006). Colonial
water technologies such as weirs, dams and barrages were directed at providing
perennial irrigation for settled agriculture, which was needed to address the food
and development needs of a burgeoning population (World Bank 2005), but
gradually led to reduced relevance of traditional water systems (D’Souza 2006).
The water technologies were also directed at draining and reclaiming marshes and
swamps for more productive and revenue-generating usages such as agriculture
(Richards et al. 1985). Attempts to tame floods through embankments scarred the
alluvial floodplains and the deltas (D’Souza 2003; Singh 2008), which when done
counter to natural fluvial regimes, prevented the spread of fertile sediments into the
floodplains and ultimately led to extended periods of water logging and converting
landscapes from being flood-dependant to flood vulnerable (D’Souza 2003).
Post-independence, taming rivers and floods formed the cornerstone of water
resources development. Colonial technologies were perpetuated in the form of dams
and embankments. Large-scale water resources development projects backed by
powerful state hydraulic bureaucracies stood robustly behind the construction of
what the first Indian Prime Minister referred to as ‘temples of modern India’
(Morrison 2010; Swayamprakash 2014). Increased control over water resources
entrenched the prominence of human-made wetlands, the reservoirs and barrages.
In contrast, the natural wetlands were seen as unproductive wastelands, reclamation
of which was incentivized by state, by means such as drainage programmes,
especially in response to the great famines that the country faced in the 1950s.
The approach of ‘developing’ water resources was also applied to several wetlands. In the north-eastern state of Manipur, the solution to devastating floods of
1966 and the region’s deprivation of power was seen in the form of regulating the
Loktak, the largest floodplain wetland of the state (Meitei 2020) and converting it
into a reservoir. The Ithai Barrage was constructed at the outflow to prevent
depletion of water level in dry winters and water from the wetland diverted to
produce 105 MW of hydropower through the Ithai multipurpose project of the
National Hydroelectric Power Corporation. The vision to green the deserts of
Rajasthan by diverting waters from River Sutlej and Beas through Indira Gandhi
Canal was realized by constructing a diversion barrage at Harike over a large
riverine marsh (Maitra 1987). The Quilon water supply scheme involved
embanking the Sasthamcotta, a freshwater wetland linked with Kallada River, to
supply water to Kollam City, an important centre of spices trade in Kerala (WISA
2017a). The planners of Kolkata saw the vast saline marshes on the eastern margins
of the city as a safe place to discharge sewage and in the process laid the basis of
world’s most extensive sewage-fed fishery system (WISA 2020). The famed
backwaters of Kerala, the Vembanad, were split by Thaneermukkom, a barrier to
retain freshwater and enable its availability to Kuttanad, the rice bowl of Kerala.
Kuttanad itself emerged out of polderization of floodplains (James et al. 1997).
The impact of water resources development projects, coupled with linked
developmental changes in the catchments, has been highly adverse in many cases.
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R. Kumar et al.
water technologies such as weirs, dams and barrages were directed at providing
perennial irrigation for settled agriculture, which was needed to address the food
and development needs of a burgeoning population (World Bank 2005), but
gradually led to reduced relevance of traditional water systems (D’Souza 2006).
The water technologies were also directed at draining and reclaiming marshes and
swamps for more productive and revenue-generating usages such as agriculture
(Richards et al. 1985). Attempts to tame floods through embankments scarred the
alluvial floodplains and the deltas (D’Souza 2003; Singh 2008), which when done
counter to natural fluvial regimes, prevented the spread of fertile sediments into the
floodplains and ultimately led to extended periods of water logging and converting
landscapes from being flood-dependant to flood vulnerable (D’Souza 2003).
Post-independence, taming rivers and floods formed the cornerstone of water
resources development. Colonial technologies were perpetuated in the form of dams
and embankments. Large-scale water resources development projects backed by
powerful state hydraulic bureaucracies stood robustly behind the construction of
what the first Indian Prime Minister referred to as ‘temples of modern India’
(Morrison 2010; Swayamprakash 2014). Increased control over water resources
entrenched the prominence of human-made wetlands, the reservoirs and barrages.
In contrast, the natural wetlands were seen as unproductive wastelands, reclamation
of which was incentivized by state, by means such as drainage programmes,
especially in response to the great famines that the country faced in the 1950s.
The approach of ‘developing’ water resources was also applied to several wetlands. In the north-eastern state of Manipur, the solution to devastating floods of
1966 and the region’s deprivation of power was seen in the form of regulating the
Loktak, the largest floodplain wetland of the state (Meitei 2020) and converting it
into a reservoir. The Ithai Barrage was constructed at the outflow to prevent
depletion of water level in dry winters and water from the wetland diverted to
produce 105 MW of hydropower through the Ithai multipurpose project of the
National Hydroelectric Power Corporation. The vision to green the deserts of
Rajasthan by diverting waters from River Sutlej and Beas through Indira Gandhi
Canal was realized by constructing a diversion barrage at Harike over a large
riverine marsh (Maitra 1987). The Quilon water supply scheme involved
embanking the Sasthamcotta, a freshwater wetland linked with Kallada River, to
supply water to Kollam City, an important centre of spices trade in Kerala (WISA
2017a). The planners of Kolkata saw the vast saline marshes on the eastern margins
of the city as a safe place to discharge sewage and in the process laid the basis of
world’s most extensive sewage-fed fishery system (WISA 2020). The famed
backwaters of Kerala, the Vembanad, were split by Thaneermukkom, a barrier to
retain freshwater and enable its availability to Kuttanad, the rice bowl of Kerala.
Kuttanad itself emerged out of polderization of floodplains (James et al. 1997).
The impact of water resources development projects, coupled with linked
developmental changes in the catchments, has been highly adverse in many cases.
112
R. Kumar et al.