For good five years Goa has held an upper hand in the Mhadei Water Dispute tribunal as well as the Supreme Court.
However, a meeting in Delhi and a subsequent letter from Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to Karnataka BJP chief Yadyurappa has given a new dimension to the whole issue.
Karnataka, despite the orders of the Supreme Court and the tribunal to maintain status quo, has gone ahead with the canal works.
Team Herald visited the site to know what exactly the situation is and what was seen was a startling revelation.
The team observed that the flow of Kalasa River has been stopped by Karnataka and to regulate the water flow they have used a water regulator and have constructed a five-km long underground canal.
The flow of Kalasa River water to Goa has been totally stopped and the natural flow of Mhadei River water is towards the Malaprabha River.
In these circumstances, what Goa is getting is trickles of water or a seepage to be specific.
Eminent environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar says there are 11 rivers in Goa and the Mhadei River is one of the most important rivers which is 111 kms long.
“In all, six talukas get water from this river as several water treatment plants are totally dependent upon this river”, said Rajendra Kerkar who is fighting this battle for a long time.
He says Mhadei comes from a small spring but later takes a huge form as it enters Goa. “There is a need to bring about public awareness among the masses. The traditional silt based cultivation is only found on the basin of this river,” Kerkar said.
He rubbished the claims of Karnataka that since the water enters the sea it is wasted and said that this process is required to maintain the ecological balance in the sea.
“We are going slowly on the Mhadei issue. We have to come on the roads in protest. Now, we all have to approach our MLAs on the issue and have to move a calling attention motion in the Assembly to solve the issue,” said Rajendra Kerkar of Mhadei Bachao Abhiyan.
Not only Goa but the villagers of Kankumbi are also upset with their government as the project will be of little help to them.
Former sarpanch of Kankumbi, Arun Naik said, “The villagers have always opposed the Kalasa Banduri project as it will not benefit us.”
“The Kalasa canal has destroyed our agriculture fields. We have already opposed the project but the Karnataka Government has pressurised us. This canal has destroyed our source of water. The government has given us only Rs 5,000,” complained Mahadev Gaonkar, a local from Kankumbi.
Goa Politicos visit
Taking serious note of the illegalities of Karnataka, Goa Speaker Pramod Sawant led a delegation of MLAs to Karnataka to check the site.
Besides Speaker, Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo MLAs, Alina Saldanha and Prasad Gaonkar along with Mhadei Bachao Abhiyan (MBA) members Rajendra Kerkar and Nirmala Sawant, Narahari Haldankar, Vishwas Satarkar and Shambubhau Bandekar were present.
Water Resources Minister Vinod Palyekar said that the North Goa Collector had written a strong letter to her Belgaum counterpart asking to stop all construction works going on in contravention of the orders of the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal and the Supreme Court.
“They asked me that (Goa CM) has written a letter saying water can be given. I told them it is not an order of the court, so you cannot misuse the contents of the letter,” he said.
The history
For the last three decades, Karnataka is very keen to build dams on the various tributaries of the Mhadei River originating from Karnataka, sometimes for generating hydro electricity or making use of the water for irrigation purpose.
However, in September 2006, Karnataka Government repeatedly making claims of drinking water paucity for Hubli and Dharwad, has unilaterally gone ahead by excavating canals at Kankumbi for Kalasa-Bhandura Projects which aim to divert 7.56 TMC feet of water in the Malaprabha basin.
The Government of Goa has already raised strong objection to all the proposals of damming and diverting tributaries of Mhadei on economical, ecological and environmental ground and especially from the point of view of tiny state’s water security and ecological security.
Karnataka has now completed 80 per cent of the work on the canal project to divert the Mhadei water to the Malaprabha basin.
