Centre
to reassess Mhadei water yield
Sandesh Prabhudesai
23 December 2002
The
centre has decided to jointly prepare the reassessment of
the water yield of river Mhadei, to resolve the inter-state
water dispute between Goa and Maharashtra against Karnataka.
A high-level meeting held in Delhi on Sunday
agreed to sit together for a dialogue in three months, only
after the water yield is being reassessed. However, no fixed
deadline has been fixed.
Chaired by union water resources minister Arjun
Charan Sethi, the tripartite meeting was attended by Goa chief
minister Manohar Parrikar, water resources minister Filipe
Neri Rodrigues and Karnataka water resources minister H K
Patil, besides the officials. Maharashtra did not attend the
meet.
Though the river Mhadei originates in Karnataka
from seven tributaries covering large part of northern to
southern border of Goa, almost 78 per cent part of its flows
through the tourist state, before it meets the Arabian sea.
By diverting its waters to Malprabha river through
specially dug tunnels, the southern state plans to construct
seven dams and three hydroelectric projects to provide water
for drinking, irrigation and power generation.
If diverted, more than half of Goa would go
dry as the river runs through hundreds of villages and cities,
including capital city of Panaji, where it joins the sea as
river Mandovi. Besides irrigation, drinking and industrial
purpose, the river is also the backbone of the whole Sahyadri
range.
Goa however agreed at the meeting to scrap its
demand of referring the matter to the water dispute tribunal
since the central water commission finally kept the controversial
letter of allotting 7.5 TMC water to Karnataka for drinking
purpose.
Parrikar however forcefully argued that the
water yield report prepared by the CWC is incorrect. Not only
the yield figures but even the procedure and the methodology
followed to prepare the report is incorrect, he argued.
The Mhadei river runs for 33 kms in Karnataka
covering 375 sq kms of catchment area while it covers 1580
sq kms of catchment area in Goa all along 82 kms it runs from
the Sahyadri ghats to the Arabian sea. It just touches through
Maharashtra's southern border, covering only 77 sq kms of
area.
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