Mahadayi dispute: Tribunal awards Karnataka additional 5.5 TMC of river water, ends 50-year row with Goa

The Mahadayi River Water Tribunal on Tuesday allowed Karnataka to divert an additional 5.5 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of water to the Malaprabha basin during the monsoon, ending the 50-year dispute with Goa. The tribunal has allocated 13.5 TMC of water to Karnataka in total, of which 5.5 TMC is meant for drinking purposes in the Mumbai-Karnataka region, 8.2 TMC for power generation, and 1.12 TMC and 2.18 TMC for the Kalasa and Banduri streams, according to News18. [caption id=“attachment_2947926” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] As news of the verdict spread, activists and farmers in Hubbali and other regions of north Karnataka began to stage protests, according to The News Minute. The Mahadayi Horata Samithi welcomed the ruling pronounced by retired justice JM Panchal in New Delhi. The group expressed satisfaction with the judgment, claiming that the people of Karnataka had finally got justice.

Chief Minister of Goa Manohar Parrikar also tweeted about the ruling, saying that the verdict has done justice to Goa. He thanked the legal team for protecting the Mahadayi, the “lifeline” of the state.

A tweet on the official twitter handle of the chief minister of Karnataka said that Kumaraswamy will respond to the final award of Mahadayi Water disputes only after studying the 12 volumes of the Final Award Recommendation Tribunal and consulting with all concerned.

Karnataka and Goa, the riparian states of the Mahadayi —  known as the Mandovi river in Goa — had been locked in a bitter battle over sharing the waters of the river, which originates in Karnataka’s Belgaum district, for some 50 years. Since 2001, Karnataka has been asking Goa to release 7.6 TMC of the river water to meet the drinking and irrigation needs of its people in four drought-prone districts. Although the river flow runs along a 29-kilometre stretch in Karnataka and 52 kilometres in Goa, its catchment area —  the area from where water drains into the river — is spread over 2,032 kilometres in the southern state as against 1,580 kilometres in Goa. Mahadayi was one of the key poll issues  in the recent Karnataka Assembly elections, in which the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) had accused the BJP-led central government of not doing enough to resolve the water-sharing dispute. Last year, the Supreme Court had ordered Karnataka to stop work on the construction of a canal in Belgaum’s Kankumbi village, which was aimed at diverting water from the Mahadayi tributary. Goa claimed that it had photographic evidence to support its claim that the work had begun. However, Karnataka had rejected the claim, saying there was no such activity. In January, the Goa government had told the tribunal that Karnataka’s Mahadayi river water demand was in reality for irrigating its sugarcane fields. Parrikar had said that his state could share the river water with Karnataka for drinking purposes and expressed his willingness for talks.