Magsaysay award winner Dr Rajendra Singh while attending a meeting here said water resources should be distributed among all sectors and masses judiciously, else there would be a catastrophe as the ground water has been depleting fast everywhere.
Overdrawing of river water could lead to ecological imbalance, he cautioned. The meeting held on Monday was organised by the civil society of Baleswar in the protest against a project sanctioned by Idco for drawing river water for industries.
The civil society body has been opposing the project stating that massive drawing of water from Budhabalanga and Sono rivers could lead to water crisis for the purpose of drinking as well as agriculture in the long run.
Singh said precious river water should be properly identified, demarcated and notified for best utilisation. He also warned that unless water distribution is done evenly and judiciously, it could trigger the third world war.
He suggested that the State Government should come out with a water policy, while emphasising on a drive to make rivers pollution free.
A host of speakers including environmentalist Prafulla Samantra, Arun Jena, columnist Sudashan Das , Manoj Nayak, laxmidhar Behera, Sambhu Mohanty, Sisir Behera and Kishor Das were among several others who addressed the gathering alleging the project at Baleswar would spell doom for the people and the data given by industry body Nocci in favour of the project were not correct.
Backing the project, the industry body had earlier stated that the water would be drawn from a point where back water of Bay of Bengal meets with the Budhabalanga river, where water salinity was optimum. Further, water wouldn’t be drawn during dry season and the project was approved after a thorough study, Nocci argued. It had claimed the fear expressed by the civil society body was unfounded.