Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil made a detailed presentation of distress situation in the Cauvery basin in Karnataka and said the State is expected to fall short of 20 tmcft of water this year.
Mr. Patil made the presentation before the High Level Technical team led by G.S. Jha, who is also chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC), which embarked on a filed trip to the basin area on Friday.
The team was constituted by the Supreme Court to assess the ground realities of the Cauvery basin in two States.
The minister said “We (Karnataka) are 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,” he said.
Explaining the extreme difficult situation being faced by the State, he 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.
An estimated water requirement for drinking and irrigation purposes till May 2017, is about 67.18 tmcft. The minister feared that with the present storage of only about 32.05 tmcft of water and expected inflow of another 15.17 tmcft, “we may fall short by about 20 tmcft of water this year.”
Total requirement of drinking for towns, villages, cities, including Bengaluru and Mysuru, till May next year was about 23.05 tmcft, Mr. Patil said and pleaded with the 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 Mr. 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.
Responding to the plea, Mr. Jha said he would ensure fair assessment of the situation and strike a balance between water requirement of two States.
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.
