The Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) on August 29 directed Karnataka to ensure that 5,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs) of water be realised at Billigundulu on the inter-State boundary for the next 15 days — up to September 12.
This was decided at a meeting of the CWMA in New Delhi, which went on for two hours. Barring Tamil Nadu, which was represented by Sandeep Saxena, Additional Chief Secretary of the Water Resources department, at the meeting, other States participated in the meeting online. The quantum was what was recommended by the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC), which held its deliberations on August 28. Tamil Nadu wanted 24,000 cusecs to be supplied whereas Karnataka’ stand was 3,000 cusecs.
Referring to deficit in rainfall and inflows into four Karnataka reservoirs in the basin, Saumitra Kumar Haldar, chairman of the CWMA, told The Hindu that the decision was based on a comparison of the current year’s data with that of the long term average, which was arrived at after taking into account the 30-year-long data. “The shortfall in inflow into the Karnataka reservoirs this time is 51%,” Mr. Haldar pointed out, adding that the decision was taken based on discussions, actual shortfall, inflows and outflows of all the reservoirs.
‘Divergent opinions’
Asked whether Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had agreed to the decision, Mr. Haldar acknowledged there were “divergent opinions” as Tamil Nadu had sought more and Karnataka was “not comfortable.”
If the quantum of 5,000 cusecs was realised in the next 15 days, this would mean 6.48 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft). Ordinarily, the realisation between August 29 and September 12 would have been 19.154 tmc ft. After giving allowance for the 51% shortfall, the quantum would be 9.384 tmc ft, which was about three tmc ft higher than the actual stipulation of the CWMA, says a water expert here.
An official of the Tamil Nadu government expressed disappointment over the decision and said this would not meet even the current discharge of about 8,000 cusecs, a quantum which was hardly sufficient for farmers in the Cauvery delta. As regards Tamil Nadu, it would be looking forward to the development in the Supreme Court, which would have its hearing on Friday (September 1). After the previous meeting of the CWMA on August 11, Tamil Nadu went to the Authority, seeking a direction to Karnataka to ensure the realisation of 24,000 cusecs of Cauvery water forthwith at Billigundulu for the remaining period of the month, starting from August 14. It also wanted the neighbouring State to stick to the stipulated quantum of 36.76 tmc ft during September.
As on August 27, the shortfall in realisation of Cauvery water for Tamil Nadu was about 50.2 tmc ft. On Tuesday morning, the water level of the Mettur dam stood at 51..98 ft and the storage, 19.81 tmc ft. Inflow was 2,031 cusecs.
