https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4014-2305
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Abstract
A river is, by definition, a body of flowing water. A dam-induced water flow regulation affects its physicality and socio-political character. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 6.6 focused on protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems, including rivers, by 2020. In that sense, we aim to examine the political potential of water flow regulation as an urgent environmental concern in the context of a technology-based river regulatory mechanism. We employ conceptual discourses of depoliticization and repoliticization to explain how large-scale water controlling practices enact flow management and how such practices are challenged through grassroots mobilization. The article findings are based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Omkareshwar, India, during 2017–19, on the community’s everyday struggle due to erratic downstream flow in the Narmada River basin. We conclude by highlighting the need to subdue the existing depoliticized polity by an upward scaling of the repoliticization process for advancing the locals’ claims to regular flow.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Dam owners have often viewed releasing water from a dam for purposes other than power generation or water supply as a waste of a valuable resource (WCD Citation2000, 238).
2 With the exception of Ganges-Brahmaputra river basin, the study finds Cauvery, Godavari, Indus, Krishna, Mahanadi, Narmada, Pennar and Tapi as strongly fragmented and regulated.
3 Dams higher than 15 m or between 10 m and 15 m height that fulfill certain additional design conditions are called large dams. (International Commission on Large Dams) Accessed from https://www.icold-cigb.org/GB/dams/definition_of_a_large_dam.asp on 17 September 2020
4 Mahasangram’s literal meaning is “greater struggle.”
5 The respondents’ selection for semi-structured interview (officials, community leaders) was based on the role they played in pre, during and post protest period. For interactions, respondents were randomly selected.
6 India’s majority of large dams are located in Maharashtra (2394), Madhya Pradesh (906), and Gujarat (632). Source: National Register for Large Dams in India, Government of India (2019). Accessed from http://cwc.gov.in/sites/default/files/NRLD_04012017.pdf as on 19th September 2020.
7 While water is primarily a state subject (Entry 17 of List-II) under the Indian Constitution, disputes related to inter-state rivers come under the domain of Central Government that uses the Inter-State River Water Dispute Act, 1956 for adjudicating the concern of party states by forming a tribunal after negotiations between such states fail. Government of Gujarat lodged the complaint in 1969 after its negotiation over water sharing with Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra failed. Source: http://mowr.gov.in/acts-tribunals/awards-of-existing-tribunal/narmada-water-disputes-tribunal-october-1969 accessed as on 10 October 2017
8 Narmada Control Authority description of Narmada Controversy. Accessed from http://nca.gov.in/imp_date.htm as on 12 October, 2018
9 Omkareshwar Project construction work progress status (GoMP). Accessed from http://www.nvda.mp.gov.in/omkareshwar-project-0 as on 31 January 2021.
10 See note above.
11 Full reservoir functioning of the Narmada River Basin’s terminal dam started from 17 September 2017. Source: https://sardarsarovardam.org/Default.aspx accessed as on 12 March 2018.
12 Kaveri is a local tributary of the Narmada in Madhya Pradesh and different from the Kaveri River flowing in the southern part of India.
13 There are twelve Jytoirlingam in India that represent Lord Shiva (One of the trinity Gods in Hinduism) worshipped in the amorphous form.
14 The prayer is said to have been composed by Adi Guru Shankaracharya, an 11th century reformer sage and profounder of the Adwaita philosophical sect in Hinduism.
15 One particular text Narmada Puran is dedicated to the River Goddess Narmada. Aside from that, there is various locally available vernacular literature that illustrates the river’s religiosity.
16 The ghats (designated, majorly built, spaces) allow access to the river and are filled with people washing themselves or their clothes, performing rituals or simply staring (Fallon and Jaiswal Citation2012).
17 RTI is an information collection mechanism under Right to Information Act 2005 and a resident of Omkareshwar had filed this application in 2017 at the local police station.
18 Description of protest events is based on participant observation and unstructured interviews conducted during those events.
19 As a mode of protest expression, the community declared the dam company a dead entity because it had become deaf to their demands and was unwilling to offer any negotiation space.
20 A formal, apolitical association of local sages in Omkareshwar, which is a prominent local cultural organization in its own right.
21 The fair starts on the 11th lunar day of the Hindu month of Kartik and lasts until Purnima (full moon day). The annual Panchkoshi pilgrimage begins during this time.
22 A significant public space that connects the main town to the island via an old bridge.
23 Indian Police Code (IPC) that prohibits gatherings of more than four individuals in a public location.
24 NVDA (GoMP) and NHDC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the year 2007–08 over the use of water for electricity production from the Omkareshwar Dam reservoir.
25 Since its declaration in 1979–80, the award had fixed forty-five years for the existing water share of the Narmada River. After that period expires, it provides for re-negotiation between the party states.