Diversion sparked river war with Goa

Yet another river water dispute involving Karnataka has been referred to a tribunal. After spats with Tamil Nadu and led to constitution of tribunals in both cases, the state now clashes with Goa in the newly constituted Mahadayi tribunal. For Karnataka, the Union cabinet decision on Thursday to constitute this tribunal comes as a big surprise, for the state had consistently opposed such a move. However, it has gone down well with Goa, which has been pushing the Centre for it.

Root of controversy

Karnataka planned to divert a small quantity — 7.56 tmc ft of water — to the Malaprabha reservoir to meet the drinking water requirements of Hubli-Dharwad and other towns and villages. “The scarcity of drinking water there is so acute that people often don’t get drinking water even once in ten days,” water resources minister Basavaraj Bommai told TOI.

In March 2001, Goa complained to the Centre when Karnataka planned this diversion and the first inter-state meeting was held in May 2001 in New Delhi. Goa objected on two counts: i) That Mahadayi is a deficit basin and ii) The diversion will have an adverse impact on the environment and ecology of the basin. At the second meeting in March 2002, the Central Water Commission chief engineer reportedly said that Goa was cooperating in yield studies and gave the state one month to share the findings. However, Goa sought three months but Karnataka claims Goa has not yet submitted the report.

Centre’s nod

Karnataka brought Goa’s “non-cooperation” and the urgent need to divert water through Kalasa-Bandoori Nala to the Malaprabha reservoir to the notice of the Union water resources ministry. In April 2002, the Centre accorded “in-principle clearance” to Karnataka for diversion of 7.56 tmc feet of water. As Goa promptly objected to it, the Centre on September 19 ordered the clearance be kept in abeyance. To sort out the issues, the Centre held an inter-state meeting in December 2002 and ordered CWC to do a re-assessment of the yield study. The CWC submitted its yield study report in March 2003. Since then Karnataka has been reminding the Centre through various letters and personal discussions for follow-up action and withdraw the abeyance order.