Bihar

Small and big dams and big embankments were constructed in this region, without understanding the nature of the rivers which have always changed course or overshot their banks. Assuming however, that the river will not change course, the Government adopted a skewed development program - that of building embankments to contain the river.

This presentation deals with the problem of arsenic contaminated aquifers in the Gangetic belt of Bihar and the failure of the state government in tackling the crisis and calls for the establishment of a centralized knowledge & research hub with an understanding of the regional peculiarities to mitigate the crisis.

It traces the origin of arsenic crisis to the switch from use of surface water to groundwater. The health impacts of arsenic poisoning and the factors that aggravate arsenicosis are explained. A total of sixteen districts (fifty-seven blocks) in Bihar are affected by high levels of arsenic in groundwater, in trivalent form, which is a more toxic form of arsenic.

When the foundation stone for the Kosi embankment was laid on January 14, 1955, near Nirmali in Saharsa district in Bihar, euphoric people shouted, Aadhi roti khayenge, Kosi bandh banayenge (we will eat only half a chapati but we will surely build the embankment), writes the prolific engineer and activist Dinesh Mishra in his book, “ Trapped! Between the Devil and the Deep Waters.” No one really paid any attention to the protests and the fears of the people who would live with these embankments and what would happen to their lives.

This set of case studies (in hindi), details the work of Megh Pyne Abhiyan and their network partners - Gramyasheel and Samta, in organising safe drinking water in participation with the local village communities, in the flood affected West Champaran, Supaul and Khagaria districts of Bihar.

In the context of the guidelines of the revised National Water Policy (2002) which require the states to prepare a comprehensive state-level water policy, and also the need to pay special attention towards the construction of new irrigation projects, along with water management, land management, food management, floods management, ecological balance etc, in the context of the various new developments and problems being faced by the state of Bihar over the last decade or so, the Water Resources Department of the State Government of Bihar has prepared a draft State Water Policy (2009) and is inviting comments from the general public.