Indian Farmers and the National Government Fight Over Water Resources

Just today, Greenpeace made it public news that in the Vidarbha region in India, local farmers are engaged in a constant battle with the national government. The main drive behind this feud: access to local water resources.

As members of Greenpeace India explain, water in this part of the world is already scarce, which means that local communities find themselves having to go through extensive troubles when needing to irrigate their crops.

In spite of this situation, it now seems that India's government has plans to build 71 new coal-fired power plants in the region.

It is not difficult to guess that this will only make matters even worse for the farmers, as the little water they have at their disposal will have to be shared with these new constructions.

Apparently, a recent Greenpeace report goes as far as to hit at potential social unrests if the government pushed forward with its plant to build said coal plants.

Greenpeace's website offers various examples of local communities in India which will be left without access to water by these new construction operation.

Thus, residents of the Nimgawahan village in the Amravati district presently rely on water from the Upper Wardha dam in order to grow crops such as wheat, something which enables them to both make some money and set aside some more food for their families.

However, should this water be diverted to power plants, the people living here will suddenly find themselves without any means of making a living.

A more troubling piece of news is that, according to Greenpeace, there have already been cases of farmers choosing to put an end to their lives because of lack of access to water resources.

Truth be told, given India's recent power blackout, it comes as no surprise that the government is willing to do everything in its power to keep something like this from ever happening again.

However, due consideration must also be given to the people and, hopefully, future investments will be made in renewable energy sources and not in building more coal plants.