After nearly 30 years of planning, over 20 years in construction and more than Rs 15,000 crore of investment, the vision of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) seems to be blurring with each passing day.

The sole purpose of the project — providing irrigation and drinking water to the farmers and villages — is going haywire with farmers objecting to the laying down of minor and sub-minor canals in many regions. Instead, they are siphoning water with the help of bucknalis and even using the force of water (dharya) to take it to their farms.

A study conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in the SSP command area has revealed that farmers are using the branch canal to divert the water to their fields.

The study titled ‘Evolving Arrangements for Local Water Delivery in SSP Command Area’ said: “A few villages like Thanwa in Vadodara branch indirectly get the water for irrigation from branch canal through a village pond. Farmers, with the help of the gate operator, get the gate opened for three-four days every month. The water rushes out of the gate and fills fields before it flows through the normal dharya to reach the village pond. The fields, which get filled with water, are thus irrigated. The villagers then lift water from the pond.”

The percentage area being irrigated through lifting is increasing from 3.93 per cent to 100 per cent towards the tail end of the main canal, says the report. Lifting is more prominent where canal is at a lower level than the farmlands. “This is not what the SSP was meant for. If it continues like this, it will defeat the purpose of this ambitious project,” said Tushaar Shah, Executive Director, IWMI.

The project was envisioned to use 5,600 km of main and branch canals and 66,000 km of distribution networks to deliver 9.8 km of irrigation water to 1.8 million hectares of land. In some areas, the SSP has successfully created minor and sub-minor canals, which take water from the main and branch canals to villages for irrigation and drinking purposes.

The state government, which is aware of the illegal lifting of water by the farmers, is pulling the wool over eyes. “We have come across some cases, but they are very few. We have taken actions against those found using various techniques to lift and siphon water,” said AJ Jyoti, MD, SSNNL. The state-owned company is the implementing agency of the SSP.