Karnataka has got a share of water, is that a victory for Goa?

Five years after it was set up the Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal has released its award and with it released 5.5 TMC of water to Karnataka – 1.5 TMC to be used within the basin and 4 TMC to be diverted to the Malaprabha basin. It has also given the neighbouring State another 8.3 TMC to be used for power generation. The final verdict of the tribunal that was set up in August 2013, has predictably drawn mixed reactions in the State, and depending on which side you are on, the verdict is either good for Goa or bad for the State.

While the government claims a victory as Karnataka has not been given the 35 TMC that it sought, the Mhadei Bachao Abhiyan that has been consistently following up the issue says it will be detrimental to Goa, and Congress terms it a total disaster for the State. The verdict may be in, but the jury on it is still out.

Karnataka has been given 5.5 TMC of water and been allowed to divert a portion of it to the Malaprabha basin. Does this appear to be a victory for Goa? But Goa’s legal team claims that the tribunal has rejected every contention of Karnataka and Goa’s case has been fully upheld. The verdict has given Karnataka the use of 13.8 TMC in all as against its demand for 36.5, while against Goa’s demand of 122 TMC, the State got just 24 TMC, over and above the existing utilisation of 9.395 TMC. Everybody’s got a share.

Karnataka has got less water than it sought, so too has Goa, how does that turn into a victory for the State?

As pointed out by the environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar, what went against Goa was the failure of the State to prove it is water deficient, despite in 1999 the Assembly having resolved that Goa was water deficient.

Goa’s argument through the hearings, centred around the fact that diversion of water by Karnataka would disturb the ecological balance and also harm Goa’s ecosystem. Goa is a coastal State and overexploitation of fresh ground water would result in the increase of salinity in the groundwater as there would be ingression of salt water that would also damage the mangroves. Goa also contended that it was a water-deficient State and any diversion would adversely affect its water supply and agriculture. Karnataka argued that the Mhadei is a surplus basin and the surplus water drains into the sea, and proposed that this surplus water could be diverted to the Malaprabha basin that is a deficit basin to meet the drinking, irrigation, agriculture and power generation needs.

Delivering its judgement, the tribunal said the equitable distribution of the river waters among Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa is ‘neither necessary nor feasible’ at this stage, and that activities related to water resources development for the benefit of society must not stop and people must not suffer. 

The partisan lines taken by the government and the opposition on interpreting the Mhadei verdict is not healthy for any future decisions on the sharing of waters. The Mhadei water issue should be above politics where the interests of the State are first, and political one-upmanship is cast aside. Going by the arguments before the tribunal it is the future of the State that is at stake here. The river flows through 52 kms in Goa and is known to be the lifeline of the State. Playing politics with the water verdict will benefit neither the State nor help save the waters of the Mhadei.