BHUBANESWAR: The agreement signed between Bihar and Jharkhand on Sone river water-sharing in the presence of Union Home minister Amit Shah has raised hopes of an early resolution of the Mahanadi water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
Welcoming the development, the BJD and Mahanadi Bachao Andolan (MBA) have urged the Centre to intervene in a similar manner to resolve the long-standing dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh. They said the agreement on Sone river water-sharing, which resolved a 25-year-old dispute through dialogue has kindled hopes of a similar reconciliation between Odisha and Chhattisgarh over sharing of Mahanadi water through the ongoing talks.
Chief ministers of Odisha and Chhattisgarh, Mohan Charan Majhi and Vishnu Deo Sai respectively, had met in New Delhi on July 30 in the presence of Union Jal Shakti minister CR Patil. After the meeting, Majhi had announced that the dispute between the two states will be resolved by Diwali this year.
BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said the Centre should play a positive role for the resolution of the dispute as several key issues need to be settled by the technical committees. The intervention of the Centre or a minister like Shah is required for a successful negotiated settlement, he said.
Quoting from a July 22 letter of the Chhattisgarh chief minister to his Odisha counterpart, Mohanty said Sai wanted expansion of the joint technical committee with inclusion of members from the Jal Shakti ministry and CWC. The joint technical committee of Chhattisgarh and Odisha have met several times in the recent past and resolved a number of contentious issues under the guidance of the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal.
“However, certain complex and outstanding matters require additional independent technical expertise to facilitate a just, equitable and permanent resolution to the water dispute,” Sai had said in the letter.
The Mahanadi Bachao Andolan has also urged Shah, the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Centre and Chhattisgarh to ensure that any settlement is based on an agreed hydrological assessment, protection of Odisha’s essential non-monsoon requirement, cumulative assessment of upstream projects, legally enforceable environmental flows and climate-resilient river-basin management.
MBA convenor Sudarsan Das said a major issue is the disputed assessment of water availability. Chhattisgarh has claimed about 27.48 MAF while Odisha has contested this and placed the availability at about 24.27 MAF, with only 10.83 MAF considered utilisable by Chhattisgarh. Odisha has also sought protection of 1.74 MAF of water during the non-monsoon period from November to May.
“These competing figures must first be subjected to a transparent, scientifically rigorous and jointly accepted hydrological assessment. Equally important is the cumulative impact assessment of the numerous dams, barrages and water-diversion projects constructed on the Mahanadi and its tributaries in the upper basin of Chhattisgarh,” he said.
