BENGALURU: The Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) on Wednesday directed Karnataka to pay attention to ensure drinking water over irrigation needs, warning that the Cauvery basin is headed for a distress year with reservoir inflows remaining far below normal, Karnataka Water Resources Minister Ramalinga Reddy told The New Indian Express.
The decision, taken at a crucial CWMA meeting in New Delhi, comes as deficient rainfall across Karnataka’s Cauvery catchment has raised concerns over water availability for the coming months.
Additional Chief Secretary to the Water Resources Department and senior officials represented Karnataka at the meeting, who later briefed Ramalinga Reddy. The CWMA was informed that rainfall over the past five weeks has been significantly below normal in the upper riparian catchments of Kodagu, Hassan, Mysuru, Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagara, and adjoining districts, resulting in poor inflows into the Cauvery reservoirs.
With the India Meteorological Department forecast indicating below-normal rainfall for the remainder of the monsoon, the CWMA warned that the situation could continue through the remaining months of July, August and September.
In an unusual advisory reflecting the gravity of the situation, the authority asked all Cauvery basin states to utilise the available water primarily for drinking purposes and avoid using reservoir storage for irrigation.
It observed that the water presently available in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu would be adequate to meet drinking water requirements if managed prudently, while stressing that irrigation would have to take a back seat in view of the distress conditions.
The CWMA also directed Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to maintain the status quo in water sharing under the Cauvery award.
It noted that the Cauvery is a seasonal river and that the tribunal’s water-sharing framework contains provisions for “distress’’ years when inflows are substantially below normal.
According to the Authority, Karnataka released 2.5 tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu during June, while 0.54 tmcft has reached the lower riparian state during July so far. The Authority recalled that it had cautioned the basin states as early as April and May about the possibility of a difficult monsoon season and had advised them to plan reservoir operations accordingly.
Meanwhile, the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC), that meets every fortnight, will next meet on July 28 to review rainfall, reservoir storage and inflows before deciding on further operational measures under the Cauvery water-sharing mechanism.
