``Our prime concern is human survival. The environment comes after that'', he told Express Newsline here today. ``We are not bothered what environmentalists or experts believe about the government's decision to tap groundwater tables in this part of drought-prone Saurashtra.''

Patel was reacting to media reports that the pipeline project would destroy the environmental balance in the region.

``If necessary, we will face a legal battle, but that will not shake our commitment to providing drinking water to the people of Rajkot'', the minister said.

Incidentally, former Union Minister for Environment and scion of the erstwhile ruling family of Wankaner Digvijay Singh, believing that the project would pave the way to an environmental disaster, had threatened to file a public interest litigation to obtain a stay order on the ongoing project.

Asserting that work on the Rs 67-crore project was proceeding on war-footing and that water would reach Rajkot through an 80-km-long pipeline by October 5, Patel said, ``Environmentalists and experts may argue that tapping groundwater tables will cause immense damage to the environment and result in desertification of the region. But do they have any solutions to suggest on how to quench the thirst of the millions of people?''

When it was pointed out that the centuries-old underground reservoir, of depleted, would take several hundred years to be replenished, the minister retorted, ``But what about the immediate problem posed by the acute drinking water shortage in the Saurashtrian city? Human beings are our first priority.''

However, Patel softened on his stand to say that once the drinking water problem eased with the next monsoons, the bore-wells sunk in the Vankaner-Jasdan region could be closed. ``The steel pipes used in the project could be put to work in other water schemes'', he said.

Once the controversial pipeline became functional on October 5, the minister said, Rajkot city would start receiving 50 million litres of water every day. ``Each residents of the city will receive 120 litres of water on alternate days'', he said. So far as Surendranagar -- another Saurashtrian city facing an extremely acute water problem -- is concerned, it has just started receiving about six million litres of water per day, following the completion of a Rs 15-crore pipeline project last week.