Bengaluru: Water Resources Minister M B Patil, have presented the Karnataka’s position on the availability of water and the prevailed distress situation in the Cauvery basin region in the state, before the four-member High Level Technical team led by G S Jha, who is also chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC) sent from the Center, here on Friday.
Presenting a grim situation prevailed in the Cauvery basin due to failure of South-West monsoon this year, the minister said that, “We are not in a position to release any more water from our reservoirs. Compared to ours the neighbouring Tamil Nadu was placed in a better position in view of the probable normal North-east moonson,” he said.
Explaining the extreme difficult situation being faced by the State of Karnataka due to poor rain fall for the second consecutive year, he said that “Our farmers were put to a great hardship as they were able to go for sowing in an area of about of only 6.15 lakh acres and the standing crops in about 1.88 lakh acres got damaged and whatever remaining is facing severe soil moisture stress”.
Stating that the total water requirement for the state till May 2017 estimated for both drinking water and irrigation accounts for about 67.18 tmc of water the minister feared that with the present storage of only about 32.05 tmc and expected inflow of another 15.17 tmc, “we may fell short of about 20 tmc of water this year”.
The requirement to meet the drinking water for towns, villages, cities including Bengaluru and Mysuru till May next year was about 23.05 tmc of water, he said.
He also pleaded with the Central team to take into account of the rainfall of the South-East monsoon, in Tamil Nadu, before working out the distress formula to be shared by all the riparian states. The minister also appealed the team to assess the ground reality during its visit to the Cauvery basin in the Karnataka region.
He also submitted a 30-page memorandum to Jha, highlighting the poor rain fall situation, damaged crops situation, and drinking water need for towns, cities and villages in the Cauvery region in the state.
Responding to the plea, the team head, Jha promised a fair assessment of the situation and strike a balance between two contesting states on the issue.
Senior officials from the state, including Chief Secretary Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Principal secretary, Department of water resources, Rakesh Singh, Maheshwar Rao, Principal Secretary Department of Agriculture were also present among others on the occasion. The representatives from Kerala, Puduchery, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka who are also touring with the Central Technical team, were also present on the occasion.
