1) The Indira Gandhi canal – it is the longest irrigation canal in India. It runs through Punjab, Harayana and Rajasthan (492kms). It starts at the Harike Barrage, a few kms below the confluence point of Satluj and Beas in Punjab. It was built as part of the Green revolution and it runs through the Great Thar desert.
The canal also serves to help in preventing the desertification of fertile areas adjoining the desert by making them arable.
2) The Buckingham Canal – It runs from Kakinada in AP, East Godavari district, to Villupuram district in TN. It is 796kms in length.
The canal was used to convey goods up and down the coast from Vijayawada to Madras (now Chennai). The cyclones of 1965/1966 and 1976 damaged the canal, and it is little used and no longer well maintained. Within the city of Chennai the canal is badly polluted from sewage and industrial effluents, and the silting up of the canal has left the water stagnant, creating an attractive habitat for malaria-spreading mosquitoes.
Buckingham Canal is the most polluted of the three major waterways in the city with nearly 60 per cent of the estimated 55 million litres of untreated sewage being let into it daily, including by Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board.
There have been calls from DR B Ramalingeshwara Rao, an environmentalist, to clean up the Buckingham canal and extend it upto Vedaranyam as the canal acts as a natural buffer against Tsunamis. During the 2004 Tsunami, the Buckingham canal helped mitigate the disastrous effects by providing a conduit for the sea water thus saving many villages from destruction along the coast, including some areas of Chennai. The natural vegetation along the canal had also helped in this regard.
There is continuous subduction of tectonic plate near Sumatra which means there could very well be another huge earthquake and a Tsunami, similar to the 2004 disaster. As part of the preparedness program, the Buckingham canal needs to be restored.
Also, exit conduits to the sea in southern Chennai are necessary so that the 2015 flood scenes are not repeated as the drainage outflow from S.Chennai is very poor to the planning of the city. In 2014 the CAG had advocated such a canal to be built but the local politics of TN led to delays, increased costs and non-materialization of exit canals.
The Buckingham canal is part of the National Waterway 4 and will be re-developed by the Inland Waterways authority of India. Adyar, Kosathalaiyar and Coovum rivers in Chennai also needs to be restored.
3) Satluj-Yamuna link – is a 214km canal proposed to link the waters of Satluj, Ravi(in HP and J&K only) and Beas in Punjab with Yamuna in Harayana.
The project is around 85% complete. Harayana has fnished building its part of the project, but the Punjab govt is reluctant to share its waters with Harayana and has been litigating.
4) Sarda canal in UP – The Sharda Canal is the longest canal in Uttar Pradesh along with its several branches it form a network of canals. Sharda Canal is located in the Pilibhit district and has a total length of 938 Km including all branches.
5) Upper Ganges Canal – It is the main canal of Ganges canal system projects, which starts Haridwar to Aligarh district via Meerut and Bulandshahr. It is 1412kms long, where it bifurcates into the Kanpur and Etawah branches.
