Waterman blames politicians for drought situation in Maharashtra

Mumbai: Amid growing concerns over drought situation in the state come allegations that late Congress leader, Vilasrao Deshmukh, and former Lok Sabha speaker Shivraj Patil Chakurkar, are to blame for the water crisis in Latur owing to their emphasis on sugarcane farming in a region unfit for the same.

Water expert Rajendra Singh further claimed that Deshmukh had three canals running from the Manjara River to his sugarcane farms. He proposed campaigning for drinking water for all.

Speaking with reporters at the newspaper’s office, Mr Singh said the drought in Marathwada was not natural, but man-made. He claimed that though politicians from the state were powerful, they did not do anything for people of the state.

Stressing that sugarcane cultivation was responsible for the drought, Mr Singh said that sugarcane needed a lot of water, and while it was easy for farmers to switch on electrical motors to supply water to sugarcane farms, they en-ded up ignoring how mu-ch water was being extra-cted from wells or tube wells.
The Magsaysay Award winner termed sugarcane a “lazy crop”.

Criticising Maharasht-ra’s Jal Yukta Shivar Abhiyan, Mr Singh said that when the first five-year plan was announced in 1957, there was no water crisis in any village or town.

He said that Maharashtra’s CM had stated people’s participation would be necessary in this Abhiyan, but while people’s participation was good in the first year, this time around, the scheme had not got a good response.

The water expert said that the Jal Yukta Shivar Abhiyan had become contractor-driven and all that contractors were interested in was profit and not the welfare of the people.

Asked about the severe water crisis in Latur, Mr Singh said that local leaders (read: late Deshmukh and Mr Patil) were responsible for the situation.

“Deshmukh had constructed five dams, out of which two were constructed in his fields. He did work only for sugarcane. Media focus on Latur was only because of these lea-ders. In fact, the major wa-ter crisis was in Osman-abad and not Latur,” Mr Singh said.

He said the state could overcome the water crisis by changing crop patterns. He advised the state’s farmers to shift focus from sugarcane to tur and pulses which could survive even with moisture in air.

“I met several people from Latur and other regions of Marathwada and appealed to them to shift their crop pattern and fortunately, not a single farmer disagreed with me. Everybody agreed with me. In Rajasthan, though there has been no rain for the past three successive years, farmers have produced three yields in a single year by focusing on ladyfinger and other vegetables,” he said.