Ahead of the crucial meeting of the Cauvery Supervisory Committee on Monday in New Delhi and the next hearing on Tamil Nadu’s petition for release of Cauvery waters by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Karnataka Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil made it clear that any further release of water from Karnataka’s reservoirs beyond the stipulated deadline of September 20 would result in serious shortage of drinking water for cities and villages in the Cauvery basin.
“Whatever storage is remaining will have to be used entirely to provide drinking water to the cities and about 600 villages in the Cauvery basin. They may face serious drinking water shortage like Latur, which had to depend on tankers, if Karnataka has to release more water from its reservoirs to Tamil Nadu,” Mr. Patil said on Sunday.
The Minister, who is camping in New Delhi to monitor preparations by the State legal team, said that Karnataka would inform the supervisory committee about the precarious situation owing to the poor storage level in its reservoirs.
He expressed confidence that Karnataka may not face a situation of being asked to release water, which is presently required for handling its drinking water needs, for Tamil Nadu’s irrigation requirements.
Karnataka has already stated that it would request the Cauvery Supervisory Committee to despatch an experts’ team to assess the ground-level situation in both riparian States.
The SC on September 5 directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water a day for 10 days.
It modified the order on September 12 and asked the State to release 12,000 cusecs till September 20.
