Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

Diversion of water from Koyna to State suggested

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM SEPT. 14. The environmentalist, T. Shivaji Rao, has said that 122 thousand million cubic feet of the Krishna water used for hydro-electric production at Koyna and increasing the height of the Alamatti Dam to store water for similar purpose go against the Bachawat Tribunal stipulations of giving precedence to drinking water and food production in Andhra Pradesh.

Mr. Shivaji Rao, who is the director for GITAM Centre for Environmental Studies, said Maharashtra and Karnataka had also taken up several irrigation projects like Ujjain and Alamatti and set up additional pumping stations for drawing water for irrigation resulting in reduced inflows into Jurala, Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar and Prakasam barrages with the South-West monsoon playing truant. Instead of wasting water into the Arabian Sea from the Koyna hydro-electric project it should be diverted to A.P. as suggested by Jawaharlal Nehru on December 31, 1963 to Maharashtra Government, he opined.

Quoting the former Prime Minister he said: "On the question of diverting the Krishna water to other side of Western Ghat, you want this water for power generation and not for irrigation.

It should be possible to provide you with power for this area from various places without your having to divert the Krishna river water, which would provide irrigation facilities in other parts of the country.''

People's representatives of AP must take up the matter with Maharashtra, Karnataka, and the Central Government for seeking their due and also file writ petition in the Supreme Court seeking direction to upper States not to construct projects and divert water in addition to what had been allocated to them.

``Taking a cue from the Supreme Court judgment in reserving 10 per cent of annual water flows in the Yamuna and the Ganga for ecological and environmental protection, the AP Government also must seek 200 tmcft from the Krishna for preserving the river eco-system,'' he opined.

``Since Karnataka is seeking the Krishna Tribunal allocation of surplus water, the AP Government must tell the tribunal that status quo must be maintained in the issue and deduct the amount needed for ecological balance first and the remaining only allocated among the States, which was the scheme `B' of the Bachawat Tribunal,'' he said.

Such reallocation of water should be done only after setting up of the Krishna River Valley Authority vested with the powers to distribute water equitably among the States both during surplus and deficit flows in the river, he added.

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