Goa, on Monday, filed a brief summary of arguments of their senior counsel, Atmaram N.S. Nadkarni, before the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal in New Delhi, challenging the proposed 12 projects by Karnataka in the Western Ghats, besides the trans-basin diversion of Mahadayi waters into Malaprabha reservoir.
An official spokesperson of the Goa Water Resources Department (WRD) here on Monday said it was opposed to these projects since it would result in “a complete disaster of aquatic life, marine life, and terrestrial ecology and deprive the people of Goa of the water for drinking as well as irrigation and industrial purposes”. This comes days after Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s letter to Karnataka BJP chief B.S. Yeddyurappa over his willingness to talk over drinking water sharing, which kicked off a huge political storm.
The next hearing of the tribunal is scheduled on February 6.
Meanwhile, sources in an umbrella organisation of NGOs in Goa said that Mahadayi Bachao Abhiyan will this week file an interlocutory application in Supreme Court. It will bring to its notice the alleged recent construction activity of a canal on a tributary of the Mahadayi river for diversion of water, by the Karnataka government.
