Srikakulam: The plans of the Orissa Government to make use of 55.055 tmc of water from the Vamasadhara river by constructing 10 irrigation projects or schemes has been causing serious concern to irrigation officials and people.

Completion of the proposed projects will deeply cut into the share of water for Andhra Pradesh which is the other riparian state of the Vamsadhara.

It could result in water crisis to us, said a senior official of the Irrigation Department.

The immediate cause of concern was the Orissa Government's plan to construct two irrigation projects -- one at Munigurha and the other at Minnajola, both upstream of Neredi from where the Government of Andhra Pradesh wants to divert water through a side weir and complete the Phase 11 of the Stage 11 Vamsadhara project.

Administrative sanction has been accorded to it and it is being taken up on a priority basis. In fact it is this proposal that had prompted the Orissa Government to take up the above-mentioned two projects on priority basis.

While the Munigurha project envisages use of 6.015 tmc of water, the other project at Minnajola will make use of 13.00 tmc of water to irrigate more than 30,000 hectares of land. The later is basically an inter-basin project proposing to divert water from Vamsadhara to the Rishikulya, another river in Orissa. Both are located upstream of Gudari in Rayagada district of Orissa.

There was an agreement between the two riparian States on sharing Vansadhara water, in 1962, according to which each is entitled to 50 per cent of the available water. The estimated water available then was 115 tmc. The argument of Orissa Government was that as per the agreement of 1962, it is entitled to 57.50 tmc of water which is about 50 per cent of total quantity of water, and it is perfectly within its rights to make use of the same amount of water.

However the availability of water in the river has come down and, according to an assessment in 2000, it was only 70.452 tmc and hence the share of each State in the ratio of 50:50 is only 35.22 tmc.

When Andhra Pradesh presented its case to the Central Water Commission (CWC), this fact was mentioned and accordingly the Phase 11 of Stage 11 of the Vamsadhara project was approved. This amounted to a confirmation that the available water in Vamsadhara is only 70.452 tmc. A team of officials of the Vamshadhara project went to Orissa and obtained details of the proposed projects. Andhra Pradesh has been using 17.841 tmc of water from Vamsadhara through the Left Main Canal (Stage 1) of Gotta Barrage. Now it is proposing to make use of another 16.091 tmc of water through the Right Main Canal (RMC or Stage 11). Orissa had been objecting to this.

A report submitted to the Government by officials of the Vamsadhara project, suggested to address to the CWC on the proposed irrigation projects of Orissa , the completion of which would be detrimental to the interests of Andhra Pradesh. Enquiries by the officials had also revealed that investigation work had been going on for the Munigurha and Minnajola projects.

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