Karnataka - Hubli-Dharwad   

State often at the receiving end in inter-State river water disputes

M. Madan Mohan

Karnataka unable to convince Centre that its stand is justified

HUBLI: There appears to be something wrong with the State's approach to inter-State water disputes. Karnataka always finds itself at the receiving end as the upper or lower riparian State.

As the upper riparian State, it is involved in the Cauvery dispute with Tamil Nadu and in the Krishna dispute with Andhra Pradesh. Karnataka is the upper riparian State in the dispute with Goa on the sharing of the waters of the Mahadayi, which is known as Mandovi in Goa. The latest is the dispute with Maharashtra over the floods in the Krishna basin, where Karnataka happens to be the lower riparian State.

An impression has been created of Karnataka trying to starve Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh of their due share of Cauvery and Krishna waters respectively and wanting to hurt the ecology of Goa by tapping the waters of the Mahadayi. Maharashtra has accused the State of creating a backwater effect leading to flooding due to the storage in the Alamatti Dam.

The fact that Karnataka is struggling to safeguard its own interests in sharing river waters has gone unnoticed.

From what has happened on the Krishna and the Mahadayi fronts in recent years, Karnataka has been unable to convince the Centre that its stand is justified.

When Andhra Pradesh objected to the State's plan to raise the height of the Alamatti Dam to 524 m, the Centre appointed a four-member committee. The committee gave a report in favour of the height being restricted to 519 m.

The Supreme Court in its April 2000 judgment relied on the experts committee's view and restricted the height of the dam to 519 m. The decision means that the State cannot store the surplus waters that might be available in future in the Krishna basin.

Protests ignored

The State's protests against Andhra Pradesh going ahead with the execution of projects such as the Telugu Ganga, which have not been cleared, designed to utilise surplus waters of the Krishna before the same is determined has not received attention.

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