Impacts of Kangsabati Project, India

Abstract

Water is the most vital element that supports life. It is also the prime mover of economic development and symbolises survival, growth and prosperity, so much so that it has long been the focus of attention and the centre of all future planning and strategy. Over the centuries, however, it became clear that in order to attain the objective of overall development there was a need for large dams or, for that matter, large multi-purpose projects, to spread benefits widely, which were strictly localised in earlier times. In post-independence India, several dams and multi-purpose projects have been constructed to increase food production, energy generation, drinking water supply, fisheries development, employment generation, etc. In the long run, most of these projects have not only been successful in delivering the benefits that were expected prior to their construction, but over the years, they have radically transformed the economic scenario of their command areas. In spite of this, for the last decade or so, there has been a scathing attack on the feasibility of large dams within the domain of ‘development’. Numerous questions have been raised, ranging from environmental to ecological and social issues, some of which are rather trivial and seem deliberately posed to create confusion among the masses (notwithstanding the fact that most people have been direct beneficiaries of those large projects).