HYDERABAD: Telangana Irrigation department officials on Friday told the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) meeting that a hydrological study should be carried out for proper assessment of the availability of Godavari waters before diverting them to Cauvery. The NWDA convened the meeting in Delhi of representatives of beneficiary States – Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and Puducherry – to build consensus on Godavari-Cauvery linking. Incidentally, Chhattisgarh was not invited after it made it clear that it has surplus waters available.
Pankaj Kumar, Secretary, Jal Shakti Ministry, stressed taking forward the proposal while considering alternatives as may be suggested by the States in view of lack of consensus on water availability. The Union government was firm in taking up the proposal through consensus, Pankaj Kumar said. Chief Engineer (ISWR) Mohan Kumar and EE Subramanya Prasad represented Telangana.
Insisting on hydrological study for correct assessment of the availability of waters, they reminded the NWDA that the Telangana was entitled to use 968 tmcft as per the award. They also requested early clearances of all the seven projects for which detailed project reports (DPRs) were submitted in view of the water availability as per NWDA.
The NWDA proposed to divert 247 tmcft of the 324 tmcft of surplus waters in Godavari in Chhattisgarh. The plan is to divert water from Godavari to Cauvery via Krishna and Penna rivers. Opposing this, Chhattisgarh stated that plans to utilise all the surplus water available in the State.
In Friday’s meeting, only Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, which stand to benefit, supported the project. The Centre decided to take up the link only after consensus was reached among all participant States.According to sources, Karnataka wants a share of diverted waters both in the Krishna basin (based on Godavari waters diversion as per the Award) and the Cauvery basin, citing more drought-prone areas in its territory.Tamil Nadu requested the immediate implementation of the proposal duly suggesting minor change of alignment within its territory.
Only unutilised water
The CWC officials said that at present they were planning to divert only unutilised waters of Chhattisgarh to an extent of 141.26 tmcft in view of the concerns of AP and Telangana about the availability of 247.2 tmcft. The officials said that consent of Chhattisgarh was needed to take the project forward. Jal Shakti Ministry Advisor Sriram Vedire too requested the States to respond positively to the proposal, in the interest of national perspective. It was decided that NWDA and CWC would firm up the water availability duly taking into consideration the Awards in force. It was also decided to utilise ‘water diplomacy’ for deciding the shares of States.