The Hindu : Karnataka News : "Tamil Nadu entitled to only 253 tmcft of water"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 09, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

"Tamil Nadu entitled to only 253 tmcft of water"

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, MARCH 8. Even as Tamil Nadu has pleaded before the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal that its total requirement of water from the Cauvery is 562 tmcft, Karnataka has filed an application before the tribunal disputing the figure and stating that Tamil Nadu is entitled to only 253 tmcft of water to irrigate 15.906 lakh acres of land.

It said that even within the 253 tmcft of water, the catchment area below the Mettur reservoir generates about 116 tmcft of water and, therefore, the burden on the catchment area above Mettur (from the reservoirs of Karnataka) will not be more than 137 tmcft of water.

Fali S. Nariman, senior counsel for Karnataka, will make his submissions on this application when the hearing resumes tomorrow before the tribunal comprising the Chairman, Justice N.P. Singh, and members N.S. Rao and Sudhir Narain.

The application states that the total area under all systems below Mettur is 15.906 lakh acres (15.24 lakh acres under the delta systems as per the 1921 project report plus 1.096 lakh acres under river canals as in 1924 less 43,000 acres in Karaikal area). It has asserted that the development of 45,000 acres in Mettur canals by the Tamil Nadu Government as part of the Cauvery Mettur Project (CMP) is contrary to the 1924 agreement and the project report.

Further, as per the CMP of 1921 referred to in the 1924 agreement, the water requirement of the total area of 15.24 lakh acres under the project is 242 tmcft in a normal year. On the same basis, the total requirement for 15.906 lakh acres under all systems below Mettur will be only 253 tmcft of water in a normal year.

Karnataka has stated that the flow from the catchment area above Mettur (16,300 square miles) is the responsibility of Karnataka and Kerala. However, with regard to the large catchment area lying between Mettur and Lower Coleroon in Tamil Nadu(including a small portion of Kerala in Bhavani and Pambar), which, Karnataka said, contributes flows to the Cauvery and has not been disclosed by Tamil Nadu before the tribunal.

Refuting Tamil Nadu's stand that the 1924 agreement is still in force, Karnataka said the agreement is not at all in force as per the findings of the Supreme Court and, therefore, there is no need for the tribunal to go into this issue at all. Karnataka stated that even the burden of 137 tmcft of water can be further reduced to 70 tmcft applying current standards, including the proposed improvements of irrigation practices and also after extracting groundwater abundantly available in the delta region and north of Coleroon. Tamil Nadu had projected its total requirement of water at 562 tmcft and that of Karnataka at 175 tmcft, which includes water for irrigation, drinking purposes, domestic and industrial use.

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