The high-level technical team constituted by the Supreme Court to assess the ground reality in the Cauvery basin in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu following a dispute over sharing of Cauvery water between the States, inspected the Mettur dam in Salem on Sunday.
The team, led by G. S. Jha, Chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC), assessed the storage and inflow pattern of Stanley Reservoir.
Accompanied by representatives from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry, the team that had toured the basin area in Karnataka in the last two days arrived in the city on Saturday evening.
Speaking to reporters at the dam, Mr. Jha said from the presentations made by the officials and the petitions submitted by farmers, the team understood the ground reality.
The details collected from officials and farmers of both the States would be analysed. The team will be able to get a complete picture of the situation only after completion of the two-day visit to Tamil Nadu.
At the dam, the visiting team was informed that with the available water in the dam, the Tamil Nadu government would not be able to meet the demand of samba farmers for the entire season. About 12,000 cusecs of water was being discharged from the dam since September 20. With the Karnataka government refusing to release water and the catchment areas not expected to receive rainfall through the much expected Northeast monsoon, the tail-end farmers face the prospect of losing both samba and thaladi crops.
‘Edappadi’ K. Palanisamy, Minister for PWD, State Highways and Minor Ports, briefed the team on the dire need of water in River Cauvery for sustaining the just commenced samba season in the 12 delta districts in the State.
V. Sampath, District Collector, made a presentation explaining the storage position and inflow and discharge pattern. S. K. Prabhakar, Secretary, PWD, Satya Gopal, Secretary and Commissioner for Revenue Administration and Gagandeep Singh Bedi, Secretary, Agriculture Department, were present.
The team will tour Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam on Monday, before leaving for Chennai the same day.
Later, Mr. Jha inspected the Bhavanisagar reservoir and learnt about the storage particulars.
PWD Executive Engineer Tiruchendilvel briefed the team about the the water body’s storage capacity of 32 tmc, the water accrual pattern and current availability of 5.1 tmc.
“We are in the process of gathering information. Nothing could be said as of now. The final analysis will be made only after perusing all details and the report will be made known to public after submission to the Supreme Court on October 17,” Mr. Jha told mediapersons. “Our mandate is confined to assessing the prevailing ground reality,” he said when asked if the team had the scope to recommend nationalisation of rivers.
Mr. Jha received petitions from farmers who sought safeguarding of the water accrual to Bhavanisagar reservoir through stalling the proposed dam across the Siruvani by Kerala and for protecting the dam water from pollution caused by paper industry in the Sathyamangalam block.
The team took stock of the impact of the drought-like condition in fields in Kavindapadi area.
