Kalyan Rudra

This report deals with the social conflicts emerging out of the encroachments owing to the change in course of the Ganga upstream and downstream of the Farakka barrage. The barrage was built with the intention of diverting water into the Hugli river with a view to flush the sediment load into the deeper part of the estuary and revive the navigational status of Kolkata port. During the last three decades of its operation, the silt-management in the barrage was given scant or no attention. The sediment movement in the tidal estuary of Hugli is a function of a complex fluvial system that can hardly be governed by inducing 40000 cusec of water.

The availability of water, water requirement versus supply, water requirements for some major crops, groundwater exploitation, growth of population, and declining per capita water in the state of West Bengal are presented.