The Hindu : Front Page : Cauvery tribunal's final award coming after 16 years

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Sunday, Feb 04, 2007
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Cauvery tribunal's final award coming after 16 years

T. Ramakrishnan

Tamil Nadu hopes for a fair deal

Argued it was entitled to irrigate about 29.3 lakh acres and its water requirement 535 tmcft

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu, which has waited for long to obtain justice in its dispute with Karnataka over the Cauvery river water, expects a fair deal from the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, whose final order is to be given on Monday.

As the Tribunal, in its 1991 interim order, prescribed 205 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) for the State, the Government, water experts and farmers alike are hopeful that the quantum of the final award will be more than that. "We have adduced arguments before the Tribunal accordingly," says Durai Murugan, the Public Works Minister who held the same portfolio in the two previous regimes of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (1989-91 and 1996-2001).

The State argued that it was entitled to irrigate around 29.3 lakh acres and its total water requirement from the Cauvery was 535 tmcft.

It is not just the quantity that matters. The experience in the last 15 years has underscored the need for effective implementation. It took seven years for the Central Government to frame a scheme for implementing the interim award. But Tamil Nadu did not find even this agency useful, as devised by the Central Government in 1998, though the State was also involved in the process of formulating such an arrangement. So the State Government has sought a mechanism that will ensure effective implementation of the final award.

Uncertainty in receipt of Cauvery water is another bitter experience of farmers of the Cauvery delta in the State. The delta-cropping pattern is mainly decided by the timely release of water from the Mettur dam, the lifeline of the State. Normally, the shutters of Mettur dam are opened on June 12 and closed on January 28.

Only when the water release begins on the scheduled date will the farmers be able to plan their crop. Since 1991, only in seven years the dam was opened on the designated date. The more the delay in releasing the water, the greater the damage suffered by the farmers, considering the age-old cropping pattern in the Cauvery delta. And, the release in turn depends upon the supply of water by Karnataka.

The recent years, except 2005 and 2006, were rather harsh on the farmers. In 2002, the release could begin only in September and the next year, it was October. A publication brought out by the State Agriculture department says that the outflow from the dam was just 96 tmcft in 2002-2003 and 55 tmcft in 2003-2004.

Conscious of the requirements of the delta farmers, the Tribunal, in its interim order, prescribed that 137 tmcft out of the total 205 tmcft be given during the southwest monsoon (June-September). In 10 out of 16 years (including the current water year), the realisation at Mettur was less than the prescribed quantity. Of this, the State experienced a shortfall in Cauvery waters receipt during the southwest monsoon for seven consecutive years, starting from 1998. This was far below the State's share between 2001 and 2004.

Such a situation has forced farmers to give up the short-term crop of "kuruvai," according to Arupathy Kalyanam, general secretary of the Federation of Farmers' Associations of Thanjavur, Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur districts. Also, the cultivation of the long-term "Samba" crop was affected.

Though the total realisation was more than the prescribed quantity in many years, the problems of uncertainty in supply and delayed receipt of water have compelled the State to demand an effective machinery to implement the final award. Such a machinery should not have politicians but should include jurists and engineers.

One silver lining was that the farmers of Tamil Nadu did not hesitate to go in for alternative cropping, in times of water crisis.

An official recalls that in the Cauvery delta area, up to 500 demonstration plots were organised a few years ago.

Whenever Tamil Nadu complained of not having received water as per the interim order, Karnataka's reply was that it did not receive sufficient rainfall. It was for this reason that Tamil Nadu wanted a distress sharing formula which, till the end, could not be finalised.

The expectation is that at least the final award will prescribe such a formula to take care of the lean years.

The farmers and the people of Tamil Nadu are hoping that after the Tribunal's final order all the bitter experiences will remain a thing of the past.

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