The interlinking of rivers can provide viable solutions to the multi-dimensional inter-related problems of droughts, floods and interrupted navigation. Critically examine.

The National Perspective Plan (1980) envisages 30 river links — 14 Himalayan and 16 peninsular — to transfer water from 'surplus' to 'deficit' basins. The Ken-Betwa Link Project, approved in 2021 at a cost of about Rs 44,605 crore, is the first to move to implementation.

Claimed benefits

• Flood moderation in the Ganga-Brahmaputra basin by diverting monsoon peaks, and drought relief in rain-shadow peninsular regions.
• Around 35 million hectares of additional irrigation and about 34,000 MW of hydropower, as per NWDA estimates.
• Assured flows can support inland navigation on national waterways and urban drinking-water security.

Critical concerns

• The 'surplus basin' concept is hydrologically contested: flows vary between years, and climate change is already altering monsoon patterns, so today's surplus may be tomorrow's deficit.
• Ecological costs are severe — the Ken-Betwa link submerges a significant part of Panna Tiger Reserve; dams trap sediment, starving deltas and worsening coastal erosion and salinity.
• Water is a State subject (Entry 17, State List): inter-state consent is hard-won, as decades of Cauvery and Ravi-Beas disputes show; Himalayan links also raise concerns in Bangladesh.
• Costs are enormous (multi-lakh-crore estimates), and lifting water across watersheds demands large energy inputs; displacement adds a human cost.
• The approach bypasses groundwater, which actually supplies the bulk of Indian irrigation, and ignores cheaper local storage options.

Way forward

• Exhaust demand-side options first — micro-irrigation, watershed development, rainwater harvesting and smarter reservoir operation.
• Take up only ecologically vetted, consensus-based links with independent environmental appraisal, guaranteed ecological flows and basin-level institutions that give co-basin states a genuine voice.

Interlinking can be a selective, project-by-project instrument, not a panacea. Lasting water security lies in treating rivers as living systems and managing demand as seriously as supply.