BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday admitted in the Assembly that monsoon and non-monsoon flow of water in Mahanadi river in Odisha has gone down over the years.
In a written reply to a question from Naba Kishore Das (Congress), the CM said monsoon flow in Mahanadi has come down from 26.15 million acre feet in 2005 to 13.24 million acre feet in 2015.
Similarly, the non-monsoon flow of water in the river on the Odisha side has come down from 2.15 million acre feet in 2005-06 to 1.21 million acre feet in 2014-15.
The CM said there are several tributaries of Mahanadi river like Aung, Tel, Jeera, Harihar Jor and Brutang which contribute to monsoon and non-monsoon flow. The monsoon flow of Mahanadi at Munduli has also come down from 41.21 million acre feet in 2005 to 22.91 million acre feet in 2015. Similarly, the non-monsoon flow at Munduli came down from 3.71 million acre feet in 2005 to 2.28 acre feet in 2015.
In a written reply to another question from Das, the CM said the Chhattisgarh Government has constructed eight major, 29 medium and 1,860 minor irrigation projects and 371 anicuts on the upper catchment of Mahanadi river since 1908.
The information was provided by Chhattisgarh to Odisha Government on August 27, 2016 as per the template prepared for the joint meeting between the two States convened by the Union Water Resources Ministry at New Delhi on July 29, 2016.
The CM said the potential for use of Mahanadi water has reached 8.31 million acre feet after the projects completed by Chhattisgarh so far. But the use of Mahanadi water will increase to 19.17 million acre in future after completion of all the projects, he said and added that this will affect 15 districts.
In a reply to a question from Prafulla Samal (BJD), the CM said the water bearing capacity of Hirakud dam has considerably decreased. ‘’The water bearing capacity of Hirakud dam, which was 5,834 million cubic feet after its construction, has now come down to 4,823 million cubic feet,’’ he said.