As per the apex court directions, a team of experts headed by GS Jha, Chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC), went on a field trip in the Cauvery basin area on Friday. The team will be in Karnataka till Saturday to assess the situation before it submits a report to the Supreme Court by October 17.
Jha told the media that they would be visiting both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to assess the ground situation in both the States. He said “The team’s aim is to distribute water between the two States in judicious manner. We’ll be visiting the entire command within the shortest possible time.”
Meanwhile, Karnataka Water Resources Minister MB Patil made a presentation before the Central team on the situation in the Cauvery basin in Karnataka. In his presentation he said State is expected to fall short of 20 tmcft of water this year.
The Minister said “Karnataka is not in a position to release any more water from our reservoirs, owing to the failure of south-west monsoon this year. Compared to our basin areas, neighbouring Tamil Nadu is placed in a better position in view of the prediction of normal north-east monsoon.”
In his presentation the Minister said the farmers have been facing a great hardship as they were able to sow only on 6.15 lakh acres and the standing crops on 1.88 lakh acres had withered due to shortage of water.
He said an estimated water requirement for drinking and irrigation purposes till May 2017, is about 67.18 tmcft. Patil said with the present storage of only about 32.05 tmcft of water with an expected inflow of another 15.17 tmcft, Karnataka will fall short by 20 tmc of water for drinking purpose.
According to Minister total requirement of drinking water for towns, villages, cities, including Bengaluru and Mysuru, till May next year was about 23.05 tmcft. The Minster requested the technical team to take into account north-east monsoon in Tamil Nadu, before working out the distress formula to be shared by all the riparian States.
The Minister also appealed to the team to assess the ground reality during the visit to the Cauvery basin in the Karnataka region. A 30-page memorandum was submitted to Jha, highlighting issues such as poor rainfall, damaged crops situation, drinking water need for towns, cities and villages in the Cauvery region in the State.
Chief Secretary Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Water Resources Department Principal Secretary Rakesh Singh, and Agriculture Department Principal Secretary Maheshwar Rao were present on the occasion. The representatives from Kerala, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, who are touring with the central technical team, were also present. The team will tour Tamil Nadu basin area on Saturday.
The court will hear the matter on October 18.