RAMASWAMY R. IYER - A VISIONARY IN WATER RESOURCES
FROM SAMPATH’S DESK:
RAMASWAMY R.
IYER
(October 1929-9 September 2015)
A VISIONARY IN WATER RESOURCES
Born in Thakkalai in Kanyakumari
District of Tamil Nadu in South India, Ramaswamy R Iyer was a visionary and expert in water resources and their management in India, who wrote extensively on the subject and saw rivers as
inextricable parts of the lives of communities.
He was an honorary
research professor at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR). As an officer of
the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, he served as Secretary of Water Resources of Government of India, in which capacity he was the initiator and
principal draftsman of India's first National Water Policy in 1987. Since his
retirement from government, he was keeping himself engaged on water-related
issues, and in particular, cooperation on river waters by India, Nepal, and
Bangladesh. A 2014 Padma Shri awardee, he had also served on many high-level
government committees on environmental and water projects as well as
consultation for international organizations including the World Bank and the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
As for Brahmaputra River in Tibet, India
might have its concerns as to what China has always planned to do. Being
vulnerable as a downstream country he wanted India to think differently and balance
between what we do internally and what we expect our neighbours to do. He strongly
believed that our own behaviour towards our downstream neighbours and the
behaviour that we expect from China vis-à-vis India are relevant and germane to the
issues.
He was forthright in declaring that
there are some basic flaws in the very idea of interlinking of rivers, as the
project may have deleterious repercussions on environmental aspects which
needed to be addressed before the linking could be taken up. He dared to
caution the then Minister for Water Resources, Ms. Uma Bharti against taking
the height of Sardar Sarovar dam to 138.68 meters describing it as a hasty,
unwise, and disastrous decision without an in-depth analysis of the far-reaching
consequences especially adverse ones it was fraught with.
On Mullaiperiyar dam issue, he advocated
for raising the height without in any way causing an onslaught on nature.
On the ever-contentious Cauvery row
between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, he had ideas different and unpopular in political circles. He
faulted the confrontationist state governments, an ineffective Central Government, a somnolent Inter-State Council, an impractical and unrealistic adjudication
machinery, the
silence of the intellectuals, and alas, to top it all, the failure of the
"Cauvery Family". He was skeptical that Karnataka would give in,
the reason being an ‘all-round failure’. Said he, "The Award now notified has to be
operated, but that will not probably happen unless Karnataka's 'strong sense of
injustice' is assuaged to some extent." Whether politicians and other
stakeholders agreed or not, he suggested a voluntary transfer of some part of
its allocation by Tamil Nādu to Karnataka which will transform the situation
for the better enabling hassle-free sharing of the water resources.
He had the gumption and nerve to
call a spade a spade and plucked up courage to air his well-considered opinions
and suggestions in the best common interests and shared vision of the nation in water policies and
projects, reflecting his understanding of the whole gamut of the issues involved - whether one
liked it or not!
Again, he expressed his concerns about
the NDA government’s inclination even to compromise on environmental protection
for rapid growth by giving instant environmental clearances for the
sake of gaining popularity and/or political dividends without weighing the pros
and cons.
He always considered and advised
‘fool-proof and failsafe environmental protection’ to be made the strict
benchmark for clearing water management projects.
India has lost an intellectual and illustrious member of
its think tank on water resources and their management.
R.SAMPATH
11/9/2015
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