The Looming Water Crisis

It is now becoming amply clear that the Sindhu-Saraswati basin was, if not the first, certainly amongst the earliest cradles of civilization evolved by human beings. This great basin nurtured the development of so-called civilized societies through the regular flooding of its rivers and their tributaries, which brought down rich alluvial soil to cover their wide flood plains. A similar phenomenon was taking place in the neighbouring Ganga-Yamuna basin, which in earlier geological time had, it is surmised, flowed in a south-westerly direction as tributaries of the Saraswati. The earliest hunter-gatherer 'Homo-Sapiens', who took to domesticating some animals for milk, and grazing them on the rich flood plains, probably came upon plants growing wild, whose seeds appeared to be tasty and were digestible. These seeds could also be kept for deliberate sowing, which probably led to the first cultivation of grains, with barley amongst the earliest to be so sown. Other crops followed, and settled agriculture led to the sowing also of the first civilized society. Today, however, this cradle of civilization is under a severe threat.. .

An analysis of the archaeological finds of the lowest level excavations at Mehergarh in Pakistan, where the ruins are fortunately above the flood plains of the Indus [Sindhu], and are therefore well preserved, are also witness to the above pattern of civilizational development. Due to the tectonic movement of the South Asian plate, the Saraswati first shifted westwards, and later disappeared below the plate. This was the first reduction in the availability of water in this region, and archaeological evidence speaks of the mass migrations from the banks of the Saraswati to those of other rivers, as the basin of the former became a desert. The Ganga and the Yamuna were pushed eastwards due to the same tectonic phenomenon [even before the disappearance of the Saraswati], and continue their slow shift in that direction even in the current geological period. However, together the remaining glacier-fed rivers and the monsoons have continued to ensure that the Indo-Gangetic plains are amongst richest basins in the world from the point of view of water resources. Visitors to India since ancient times, amongst them the Greek Megasthenes, the Chinese Fa-Hien and the Arab scholar Al-Beruni, have testified that even when the monsoons failed, the wells of this basin did not dry up, and hence, the land was free from the scourge of famine. But the scene is changing due to other causes, amongst which is also mindless human interventions.

Origins of River Yamuna

The above testimony of visitors, was indicative of the rich ground water resources, which were regularly re-charged by a dense system of aquifers and aquitards that safely stored the monsoon waters as well as the glacial flows and waters released from forests' roots for these rivers during the lean seasons. Though flood canals have been in vogue in India since the second millennium B.C., the first perennial canal, constructed on the Yamuna, was attempted by Feroze Tughlak, to be later completed by the Emperor Shah Jehan, who extended it to Delhi. It was only after this venture, that this basin was visited by its first recorded famine. The British were later to build canals on the Ganga and the Yamuna in the nineteenth century, which was followed by two of the worst famines of our recorded history. Whereas modern man was quick to harness this planet's surface water resources by diverting the waters of its rivers through perennial canals to areas of need, he failed to recognize the close relationship that exists between these waters and the huge ground water resources of these rich plains.