TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
VASCO: The MPT on Friday strongly defended the need to safeguard the Mandovi River before the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal (MWDT), stating that attempts to divert the Mhadei water into Karnataka would have an adverse effect on the MPT and the State at large.
This was conveyed to the 10-member MWDT team headed by the MWDT Chairman Justice J M Panchal, when the team visited the MPT on Friday morning and had a detailed discussion with MPT Chairman P Mara Pandiyan on the Mhadei water dispute.
The MWDT team visited the MPT to ascertain the views of the port officials regarding the attempts by the Karnataka government to divert a large portion of the Mhadei water to Karnataka.
“The MWDT team sought the views of the MPT and its effects if the water is diverted by Karnataka government,” MPT Chairman P Mara Pandiyan told Herald.
“I informed the MWDT team that every grain of iron ore is transported in barges through the both rivers, Mandovi and Zuari, and hence the two rivers are very important not only to the MPT, but to the entire State.”
“I also informed the MWDT team that if the Mhadei water is diverted into Karnataka, it will have an adverse effect on the state as well for the MPT,” said Pandiyan.
The team visited the MPT at about 10 am and left only after 12.30 pm, after seeking detailed views from the MPT.
Meanwhile, the Mhadei water tribunal members along with 25 officials from Maharashtra and Karnataka and local officials Friday left from the tourist jetty to visit the Cumbarjua canal as well as spending time at the MPT.
The panel is supposed to visit Virdi on the Goa Maharashtra border on Tuesday where an irrigation dam is being constructed and the Kalasa canal and Kankumbi, where the diversion work is on and where a guest house here is being renovated to house the officials; the proposed Kotni dam site and the proposed site for the Bhandura dam as well as the diversion at Nerse near Khanapur from December 18 to 24.
Works are already on at Kankumbi and the state government has submitted before the tribunal that Karnataka is in the process of diverting water from Mhadeis tributaries to the Malaprabha river basin.
The state has submitted if the works continue water flowing into the Kalasa nullah would automatically flow into the Malaprabha even if the dam is not built.
