It’s been nearly a decade now since Karnataka State is fighting to divert 56 TMC of water from Mhadei River basin in Goa to the Malaprabha basin in a bid to supply over 7.6 TMC of drinking water to the drought-prone Hubli, Dharwad area. But the long pending battle seems to be unwarranted on the sole ground that the neighbouring State itself has enough water flowing through 22 rivers and two major tributaries, which they have failed to tap to meet their requirements.
Goa government is currently battling against Karnataka and Maharashtra over the proposed diversion of Mhadei River water to their region by way of constructing 20 dams 12 by Karnataka and another eight by Maharashtra. The matter is being fought before Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal (MWDT) since 2011.
Goa, through its submission before the MWDT, has averred that in the Belgavi District there are 22 rivers, all of which are untapped and can provide around 1000 TMD of water, which can be used to meet the needs of the Hubli-Dharwad area.
It also brought on record that the ground water record in the year 2011 is 9.92 mtrs which shows that there is an abundant supply of ground water in the Malaprabha region, which is also not being exploited by the state of Karnataka.
“Apart from the fact there are 22 rivers, there are 2 tributaries of Joul Nalla and Bennihalla Nallah in the Malaprabha basin, both of which are completely untapped,” State submission stated.
“Indeed the basin area of Bennihalla Nallah of the larger Malaprabha basin alone is three times bigger than that of the Mhadei basin. The yield of the Nallah is 10.29 TMC on 75 per cent dependability, of, which, as per the same proposal, hardly 1.5 TMC has been put to use,” Tribunal was informed.
The Joul nallah has a catchment area of 244 sq kms and the Bennihalla of around 5048 sq kms, which is more than twice the entire Mhadei basin.
“We have been repeatedly saying that the Belgavi district itself has enough water resources to take care of Hubli-Dharwad region. But Karnataka does not want to tap that water. They want to preserve it for their future, and at the same time, divert water from rivers, flowing in the neighbouring States like Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, etc,” environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar told HERALD.
Goa, government though various submission before Tribuna,l has exposed Karnataka’s game, wherein under the guise of taking drinking water from river Mhadei, the actual plan is to utilise the river water for sugarcane cultivation, which has grown from 224 ha in the year 1979 to 2756 ha in the year 2012-13.
“Karnataka’s bogey of requirement of drinking water is false, unjust, unreliable and facts which are non-existent,” Goa has said adding that Karnataka has sought to make a mockery of their entire claim by pleading unjust unreliable, casual claims and facts before the Tribunal.
Goa, which has put up a strong case before the Tribunal since 2012, when it got the momentum, has on very instance brought to the notice of MWDT that diversion of water from Mhadei basin will result in a complete disaster for aquatic life, marine life, and terrestrial ecology and deprive the people of Goa of the water for drinking, irrigation and industrial purpose.
