INDIA'S WATER MANTRA:
THE VISION
&
COTRIBUTION OF
G. N. KATHPALIA

This momentous biography of the Water Man of India, now a centurion is a legacy to cherish and also an inspiring episode to emulate by the posterity. Gian Nath Kathpalia is a name to reckon in water technology. He gave the clarion call that, ‘Our relationship with water must be redefined.’ He spearheaded sustainable development on the national and global front during his extensive career of 75 years from 1950. He has been credited for novel technological solutions focusing on water, forests, agriculture and urban land use, with the development of the nation in mind.

The biographer, Ashok Raj, himself a thoroughbred engineer from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi discovered the unsung saga of G.N. Kathpalia and assiduously ferreted out nuggets of history in the making of water technology in India.

Considering, “Water is the only natural resource without which no other development or activity can take place.” G. N. Kathpalia embarked on key hydrological projects to steer newly developed India on a path of development. This includes his path breaking work for the Uttar Pradesh Government and Central government agencies like the Planning Commission, the National Commission on Agriculture, the Water Resources Ministry, and the IIT Consortium-led National Ganga River Basin Management Plan.

G.N. Kathpalia has also held valuable consultancies for international organisations such as the United Nations, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, USAID and the Ford Foundation, and has been a technical adviser in several countries.

G. N. Kathpalia was born in the northwest region of the Indian subcontinent, now in Pakistan. Later he migrated to the Indian side and studied at the illustrious Modern School in Delhi. GNK had also become an upbeat sportsman, playing all types of sports, including swimming and horse riding. During his schooling here, he was taken on trips to Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, Lucknow, Banaras and Shanti Niketan then set up by Rabindranath Tagore. Ashok Raj narrates the visions of educationists Lala Raghubir Singh and Ms Kamala Bose of those early days who were instrumental behind such novel schooling.

G.N. Kathpalia graduated in civil engineering and in 1949 got his master’s from Roorkee University, now known as IIT-Roorkee. He was a tennis captain there and won the swimming championship called the Waterman & Billiards Championships.

The college was set up by the British Government to train professionals in civil engineering, as their demand was rapidly increasing for the construction, operation and maintenance of large-scale infrastructure projects like railways, bridges, and waterworks. The Ganga Canal was one of the most ambitious projects at the time.

Even in those early years, GNK’s father, Shri Krishan Narayan Kathpalia was highly educated who did his BA at a college in Lahore in English, mathematics and science. He then gained admission the Roorkee College of Engineering and graduated in the seventh position in 1924. This was the same college where his son GNK too happened to study to become an engineer. His father too was posted in the state of Uttar Pradesh (then the United Provinces) to work on the Upper Ganga Canal System.

G. N. Kathpalia got married to Usha in 1951 in Dehradun after joining the irrigation department of the Uttar Pradesh government in 1950. Usha now 92, is a devout Soka Gakkai Buddhist and has stood by GNK at even field work moments. Ashok Raj in his biography has laid 14 chapters followed with a photo gallery offering vignettes from the life and contribution of GNK.

The book diligently addresses ‘Indian Water Sector Disasters: Dam and Canal Breaches, Floods, Flash Floods and Landslides’ in a separate chapter. The views of this grand man hydrologist opens up chinks in the water management policies. A big achievement by GNK in the face of danger from unscrupulous elements, was in resolving the problem of water theft on the Eastern Yamuna Canal In 1951.

From 1963 to 1967, GNK was the Deputy Director of the Central Water and Power Commission. He was responsible for the design of earth and rock-fill dams. He worked on Salandi Dam, Umarkote Dam and Kishan Dam, attending to problems such as foundation seepage, assisted by funding from the World Bank. His Rihand Dam experience is also worth a mention. From 1973 to 1975, GNK held the position of Specialist in Water Use, for the National Commission of Agriculture. In 1975 and 1976, GNK was the Deputy Chief Engineer at Water and Power Consultancy Services (WAPCOS) Limited, New Delhi.

From 1976 to 1980, GNK was the Joint Commissioner (Water Management) in the Ministry of Agriculture. He also set up a prudent system for monitoring Command Area Development (CAD) centres’ progress spanning 70 irrigation projects.

The Chapter, “The Nation in the Making: Engineering Solutions for Complex Water Sector Development Challenges” provides a look into many of Gian Nath Kathpalia’s professional solutions to water sector challenges. As a young India sought to develop itself and its large population, stakeholders encountered various kinds of problems related to engineering, governance and use of resources.

At 100 years of age, Gian Nath Kathpalia remains a motivational icon for everyone to read his biography redeeming his Vision and Contribution and the passage of water technology development in India. As a visionary, he redeems ‘Futuristic Perspective and Action Plan for Highly Productive Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication’.

GNK upholds the tenets of a noble life of his century saying, ‘An ethical person is a superhuman being.’

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Little Bird Publications

Paperback: 130 pages