The vexatious Siruvani Dam issue between Tamil Nadu and Kerala emerged as a national river water dispute on Sunday following Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct officials of the Union Government to cancel the permission they gave to Kerala for an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) for the proposed dam.
Kerala has decided to construct a “gravity dam” across Siruvani River in the border district of Palakkadu to impound 2.29 tmc ft water which will be also used to generate 3MW electricity. The proposed dam would help Kerala irrigate 49,000 hectare parched land in Palakkadu district, according to Kerala officials.
The move by Kerala is seen by Tamil Nadu as at attempt to deny drinking water to the three districts of Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Erode in the State. The seriousness of the situation could be understood from the fact that the DMK, the principal opposition party in Tamil Nadu which has been on a ‘war path’ with the AIADMK rushed to the legislative Assembly to pass a unanimous resolution urging the Centre not to accept the decision by the expert appraisal committee of the River Valley and Hydro Electric Projects granting permission to Kerala to build the dam with some conditions.
In her letter addressed to Prime Minister Modi, the Chief Minister has also attached the copy of the unanimous resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly expressing concerns and apprehension over the move by Kerala. “I request you to instruct the Ministries of Environment and Water Resources to take immediate action on the basis of the resolution passed unanimously by the Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly,” said Jayalalithaa in her letter.
The resolution which was moved by the Chief Minister herself asked the Centre not to grant clearance to Kerala and Karnataka to take up any project in the Cauvery basin till the constitution of the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee as per the 2007 final award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal.
Jayalalithaa pointed out in the letter that the CWDT in its 2007 verdict had said that for the purpose of sharing the Cauvery river water, the water in Bhavani and Siruvani rivers too should be included for calculating the quantum of sharing.
Saturday saw the DMK organising a large protest rally in Coimbatore against the construction of dam in Siruvani River by Kerala. Both Tamil Nadu and Kerala are already waging a series of legal battles over Mullaperiyar Dam and Parambikulam-Aliyar Rivers.
Situation in the five delta districts of Tamil Nadu is tense following the refusal of Karnataka to release Cauvery river water citing poor south west monsoon rains. Tamil Nadu’s short term Kuruvai crop ended in a fiasco for the third time in succession due to non-availability of water. In addition to this, Karnataka is all set to construct a dam across Cauvery at Mekedatu which would aggravate the water scarcity in Tamil Nadu.
The move by Andhra Pradesh to construct a dam across Palar River has vitiated the relations between Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Ministry of Home officials monitoring the situation in Tamil Nadu do not rule out the possibility of the “water war” between the three States leading to a situation where secessionists in Tamil Nadu could take a lead.
“The agitation against Karnataka by the farmers in the State was led by secessionists like Nedumaran and this is a matter of concern,” said a senior official who is tracking the situation. He was referring to P Nedumaran, a supporter of lTTE and Maosits along with activists of Dravida Kazhakam leading last week’s agitation against Karnataka and Kerala.