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Orissa-Andhra water row for Tribunal

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre to set up a Tribunal under the Inter-State Water Disputes Act to resolve Orissa’s dispute with Andhra Pradesh over the latter’s construction of a canal project at Katragada on the river Vansadhara.

Allowing a petition from the Orissa government, a Bench of Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice Markandey Katju gave this direction and asked the Centre to set up the Tribunal in six months.

The court asked Andhra Pradesh to maintain the status quo on the construction of the Rs. 850 cr. project to irrigate 1.07 lakh acres through a reservoir at Heeramandalam.

According to Orissa, as per the agreement between the two States, while farmers in Andhra Pradesh would utilise 7 TMC of water from the river, the inhabitants of Orissa would utilise 12 TMC for drinking purposes and water tanks up-stream and down-stream of Katragada. The construction of the project by Andhra Pradesh would result in cutting down supplies to Orissa.

In his judgment Justice Kabir said: “A time-frame has now been fixed for the constitution of a Water Disputes Tribunal to settle the water dispute. It is now almost three years since the complaint was made by the State of Orissa but the Central government has not taken any action in the matter. In this scenario, the prayer made by the State of Orissa does not appear to be unreasonable since the dispute between the two States does not confine itself to the construction of the Side Channel Weir and the Flood Flow Canal, but primarily involves the unilateral decision taken by the State of Andhra Pradesh to divert the river waters to the State of Andhra Pradesh, which could possibly disturb the agreement [between the two States] to share the waters of the river equally.”

Holding that this was a water dispute within the meaning of the ISWD Act, the Bench granted relief to Orissa since its complaint was pending since 2006.

“Once the Tribunal is constituted the parties will be free to apply for further interim orders before the Tribunal,” it said.

In his concurring but separate judgment, Justice Katju said: “The English poet Coleridge in his poem ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ wrote: “Water, Water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.” This is precisely the situation of the people living in large parts of India. Despite having immense reservoirs of water in the form of the Himalayas in the North and the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal in the West, South and East of India, there are water shortages everywhere often leading to riots, road blocks and other disturbances and disputes for getting water.”

Stressing a scientific solution, Justice Katju recommended that the Central government immediately constitute a body of scientists to do research on a war footing. These scientists should be given all the financial, technical and administrative help by the Central and State governments. The help and advice of foreign scientific experts and/or Indian scientists settled abroad may also be taken, “since the solution to the problem will not only help India but also foreign countries which are facing the same problem.”

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