The Mahanadi is no more a water-surplus basin, as being marketed by Governments, but a deficit basin, claimed the Mahanadi River Waterkeeper on Saturday once again.
“A study carried out by a team of researchers from the IIT Madras and the IIT Bombay has now come up with a scientific analysis and found out that Mahanadi’s water yield has decreased by a huge 10 per cent in recent years owing to significant decrease in rainfall over the basin,” informed Ranjan Panda of the Mahanadi River Waterkeeper.
Referring to the study titled, “Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall: Implications of Contrasting Trends in the Spatial Variability of Means and Extremes” by Prof Subimal Ghosh of the IIT Bombay and team, Panda said the decrease in yield in Mahanadi is highest in the country along with another river.
“The study has found out that the water yields of major surplus basins, such as Mahanadi, Godavari and West Flow River-I, have exhibited decreases in recent periods. The water yields show decreases of more than 10 per cent for the Mahanadi and West Flow River-I. For other surplus basins, the changes are within 10 per cent,” Panda said.
“This is mainly because of significant decreases in rainfall,” said Panda referring to the study.
“This study also confirms our apprehensions about the Interlinking of Rivers (IlR) plans of the Union Government,” said Panda, adding, “We have been warning the Government about Mahanadi being a deficit basin already and is going to further starved of water owing to climate change. The IlR plan for Mahanadi is not suitable at all.”
“The IIT study raises concerns about the suitability of major nation-wide projects related to river water-basin interlinking, in which the sustainability of water surplus conditions in river basins in response to a changing climate is not ascertained. Therefore, the water demand in a surplus basin first needs to be assessed and met under decreasing water availability scenarios before transferring water to the deficit basins. Hence, we argue that planning for inter-basin water transfer necessitates an immediate reassessment with a systematic approach,” he said.
“The study findings are significant and have come at the right time when we are trying to pursue both Odisha and Chhattisgarh to recognise that Mahanadi is a water deficit basin and hence planning all development projects need to consider this,” pointed out Panda.
Stating that a Mahanadi River Basin Peace Initiative has been mooted by the Waterkeeper, Panda demanded that both the State Governments initiate a dialogue for integrated planning and management of Mahanadi basin so that water availability of the basin would not decrease further.
