The much talked-about Paschima Vahini project, under which a series of vented dams or check dams will be built to augment water during summer, appears to be ready to become a reality with the State government announcing ₹100 crore for it in the 2017-18 budget.
In his budget speech on Wednesday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “Vented dams will be constructed under Paschima Vahini project to collect and store water flowing in west-flowing rivers of the coastal districts. For this purpose, ₹100 crore [will be] provided during this year.”
Talk about the project has been doing the rounds for a decade, along with another idea of linking the rivers in the coastal belt. With the government incurring the wrath of green activists for going ahead with the Netravati river diversion project (Yettinahole), Wednesday’s announcement is being seen as an effort to silence the opposition to the project.
On the other hand, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada, known to receive heavy rain, are facing quite an unprecedented situation this year, with two taluks in Dakshina Kannada, seven in Uttara Kannada, and all three in Udupi district declared drought-hit.
Dinesh Holla, an avid trekker in the Western Ghats and convener of Sahyadri Sanchaya, a registered body of green activists, said that by taking up the Paschima Vahini project, the government would only be wasting taxpayers’ money as major rivers and their tributaries will have no water either in summer or during the rainy days owing to the extensive damage to the waterbodies in the Western Ghats. He said that the Yettinahole project has already hit the Netravati and its tributaries. A number of hydro power projects built and coming up across the tributaries of the Kumaradhara and Netravati on the Western Ghats have also damaged waterbodies, hitting the ecosystem downstream, he said.
In such a situation, where would be water to store in dams downstream, he asked, adding that the government’s priority of should be to prevent damage of waterbodies in the ghats.
Not operational
Interestingly, the Kinnigoli and Malavoor multi-village drinking water projects, which are over a decade old and aim to augment water through check dams, are yet to become fully operational in Dakshina Kannada.
Two more multi-village drinking water projects at Saropadi and Sangabettu are on the verge of completion. The government has called for bids to take up another such project at Mani.
