NEW DELHI: The Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) on Tuesday rejected Tamil Nadu’s demand for further release of Cauvery river water from Karnataka’s reservoirs as the water scarcity situation became grim. The committee stated that both states have just enough water in the reservoirs to meet the drinking water demands.
“Water in reservoirs is so low that it is only enough for domestic drinking purposes,” Vineet Gupta, Chairman, CWRC, told TNIE, after the 95th meeting.
“Water in Karnataka’s reservoirs is so low that it is difficult to maintain even the natural flow. Barely 150 cusec of water reaches the interstate point Biligundulu each day instead of 1,000 cusec according to CWDT,” he further said. The committee refused Tamil Nadu’s demand to direct the Karnataka government to ensure release of backlog of Cauvery water and maintain environmental flow as per final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) modified by the Supreme Court.
As per CWDT, Karnataka needs to ensure environmental flows at Biligundulu by ensuring release of around 1000 cusecs per day, ie. 2.5 TMC from February to May.
The CWRC was of view that available storage in the designated reservoirs in the Cauvery Basin in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are sufficient enough to meet the requirement towards drinking water & environmental flows for the remaining period of the current water year 2023-24 and the initial months of the next water year 2024-25.
This year, Southern India is facing an excruciating hot summer embedded with a serious water crisis. As many as 43 reservoirs level plunges to just 17% capacity. The storage during the corresponding period of last year was 29% and average storage of the last ten years during corresponding period was 23% of live storage capacity of these reservoirs.
Karnataka said the water available in four designated storages are at their lowest, which is just sufficient to meet the critical requirements of water for drinking and industry, and standing crops. However, TN said water availability in Karnataka’s reservoirs was more than enough. The next meeting of CWRC is scheduled on May 16.
Next to Cauvery but Kushalnagar stares at water crisis
Madikeri: Acres of land have turned barren and arid after river Cauvery across Kushalnagar has parched up. Rock fragments that are usually submerged under the river have now popped up, hinting at an acute water crisis in the near future. Although mega project AMRUT 2.0 was expected to end the water crisis across Kushalnagar, there is no water in the river to enable pipelined supply.
The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) project promised to end the water crisis by giving pipeline connections to all households in Kushalnagar and a plan was chalked out to draw water from Cauvery river to enable this supply. However, non-availability of water in Cauvery river has forced authorities to source water from borewells to meet the needs of residents.
Kushalnagar has received less than 50 per cent rainfall this year leading to a major water crisis. In the beginning of March this year, sand bunds were placed across Cauvery river near Bychanahalli Water Supply and Storage Unit in Kushalnagar to enable pipelined water supply to a population of over 32,000 across Kushalnagar Town Municipal Council (TMC). However, the water level has depleted further and aquatic life like fish are unable to survive in the river.
“Ten years ago, the local authorities had planned to bring drinking water from Harangi reservoir to Kushalnagar at a cost of Rs 80 crore. An action plan was prepared and presented in the general meeting of the Kushalnagar town panchayat. However, this never turned to reality,” recalled K S Murthy, a resident.