Political consensus needed to link rivers, say experts

Political consensus is essential if interlinking of rivers has to become a reality.

This was one of the observations made by experts at a conference on river linking organised by Vellore Institute of Technology with Nawad Tech on Friday.

Underlining the significance of consensus among political parties for linking national rivers, M.S.Swaminathan, founder chairman of M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation said this attempt could be started with linking waterways in southern States. Highlighting bio-saline farming done in the State, he said seawater was a social resource and this could be tapped.

A.C.Kamaraj, member of expert committee on Interlinking of Rivers and chairman of Nawad Tech, proposed national waterways, which will be a long elevated channel and carry floodwater from one river to another.There will not be any pumping involved to link rivers. For instance, the Palar and the Cauvery can be linked and whenever there is a flood, water can be transported to the other river,” he said.

“We can store water, which could be used for irrigation and drinking throughout the year. We will also have navigable waterways and also prevent enormous water draining into sea during floods,” said Mr. Kamaraj.