Goa has never gone to war. Even the Indian takeover by the Indian army on December 18-19, 1961 was not war like. As the week begins on Monday, the former Advocate General and now Goa’s lead counsel, the Additional Solicitor General of India Atmaram Nadkarni will lead Goa’s legal defence of Goa’s mother river. And this is going to be the culmination of Goa’s most serious water war with Karnataka and Maharashtra. It’s a war for Goa’s lifeline, the Mhadei.
After a series of legal successes and orders in Goa’s favour, one of India’s most eminent legal brains , the veteran Fali Nariman, arguing for Karnataka has brought the battle for Mhadei back into Karnataka’s court before the National Water Disputes Tribunal. What Mr Nariman has done is taken the argument beyond the narrative of water requirement to that of Goa sharing water it does not need and would go to waste. Adv Nariman’s argument was simple. The total yield from the Mhadei river in the Mandovi basin is 108 TMC. The current requirement of Goa is a mere 9.334 TMC. Even in 2051, Goa’s needs will be only 64 TMC. Karnataka is seeking to divert a mere 7 TMC. On the face of this, it’s a no brainer argument which will go in Karnataka’s favour, unless Goa manages to take this beyond math and argues for the tribunal to appreciate actual ground realities.
It is important to appreciate two things. Firstly, the obvious availability of water to be diverted cannot be a blanket privilege to Karnataka to divert this outside the basin. In Karnataka the basin areas would be the areas of Kankumbhi, Bhimgad and Khanapur and in Maharashtra the areas of Surla, Ragda, some parts of Sawantwadi and Dodamarg would fall under the inclusive basin area. If water was sought to be diverted to these areas, Goa would have no problem. This is because even if water is diverted within the basin, it is never lost but comes back to recharge the ground water.
But Karnataka is seeking to divert the water to the Krishna basin while Maharashtra is planning to divert to Vengurla.
Moreover, the loss to Goa will be felt during low rainfall areas like in 2015-16, when 16 of the 18 bhandaras which receive water through Karnataka went completely dry. Less water availability also affects the ability of Goa to pump water into the Khandepar river during the dry months. In 2015-16 mining companies were asked to pump additional water from their pits into the Khandepar river after Chief Minister Parsekar’s intervention.
Karnataka needs to take a pragmatic and an honest approach to this. Wanting water within the Mandovi basin is something Goa is not objecting to. But the insistence on diverting beyond the basin when there are 22 rivers in Belgaum from where water needs can be met through pipelines, gives rise to suspicion of ulterior motives of the state of Karnataka.
It is perhaps pertinent, and in order, to point out that linked to the diversion of water from the Mhadei is the construction of the Malaprabha canal. From the initial estimates of Rs 380 crores, it has gone up to a mammoth Rs 4000 crore. It need not be specifically underlined what financial benefits accrue when such mammoth projects are taken up.
Inspite of all these arguments, it will still be Goa’s battle to fight at the tribunal on Monday. A long hard fight may be lost or genuine arguments may win the day for Goa.
