PANJIM: Stating that Karnataka’s proposed Kalsa-Banduri Mhadei water diversion project will lead to increasing salinity of the river, thus making its water unfit for drinking purpose, renowned environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar feared that if the project becomes a reality, people of Goa might have to drink urine for their survival.
Speaking during a public meeting called by the newly-formed ‘Mhadei Bachao Andolan’, Kerkar said that if the proposed Kalsa-Banduri project becomes a reality, then it is bound to increase salinity by making Mhadei river, which is the source of water for 43 per cent of the total population, unfit for drinking water as well as other disastrous effects upon the marine and human life.
Kerkar, who spearheaded the protest to save River Mhadei diversion through ‘Mhadei Bachao Abhiyan’, said that Karnataka has a grand plan to divert a total of 225 million cubic meters (MCM) of water from Mhadei to Malaprabha basin and additional 112 MCM from Khandepar River, which is popular for the scenic Dudhsagar waterfall, to Supa reservoir in Kali basin.
“Thus, the thirst for water of Karnataka cannot be quenched with the Kalsa-Banduri project, but will be increased gradually,” he said.
“If we don’t protect our river now, we will be forced to drink our urine,” the green activist added.
He said that the country’s former Prime Minister Morarji Desai was a long time practitioner of urine therapy – the practice of drinking one’s own urine.
He informed the meeting that in additional to the plans of constructing 12 dams on various feeders of River Mhadei, along with the diversion channels and canals, Karnataka has a plan to dam and divert the main feeders providing water to the Dudhsagar waterfall, where it has proposed four dams and diversions of the waterfall.
“Karnataka has drawn plans for diversion of Dudhsagar water by envisaging four dams on the upstream of Khandepar River namely Katla, Palna, Diggi-Mara and Diggi-Bondeli to divert water to Supa reservoir,” Kerkar said.
Kerkar, who has been following Karnataka’s actions on water diversion for the last two decades, said the State had initially decided to build dams on the Katla and Palna tributaries of the Dudhsagar waterfalls in 1988, but were not constructed.
“The State claims that all these diversion schemes are necessary to meet the requirement of drinking water, whereas it has around 20 rivers flowing within having 1,000 tmc of water, lying still unused,” the environmentalist noted.
Katla and Palna are two important perennial feeders of the Dudhsagar waterfalls that flow into the River Khandepar, joining River Mandovi (Mhadei) at Bimbal in Ponda. River Khandepar provides water to Goa’s Opa water treatment plant that supplies drinking water daily to Ponda and Tiswadi talukas.
“If these dams are constructed, then the Khandepar river and Sanquelim river will go dry thus further worsening the water woes of the people of North Goa,” Kerkar said adding ‘diversion of water from Mhadei river will make entire North Goa go complete dry’.
