Mahadayi protests: Karnataka's long history of disputes over water-sharing

Normal life came to a standstill in Karnataka last week as farmers and pro-Kannada groups protested Wednesday’s interim order of the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal. The tribunal rejected Karnataka’s plea for 7.56 tmc-ft of water under the Kalasa Banduri drinking water project for the drought-hit Hubballi-Dharwad, Belagavi and Gadagdistricts in the state. The Mahadayi water-sharing dispute has the states of Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka vying for water from the Mahadayi or Mandovi river, which flows through the three states. The tribunal rejected Karnataka’s plea as Goa objected to the ecological damage the project would cause to the Western Ghats and affect its own drinking water and irrigation needs. For Karnataka, coming immediately after a three-day bus strike, these protests only made living intolerable for ordinary people last week. A statewide bandh on Saturday, also saw buses, autos, taxis off the roads. Even Bengaluru’s Metro service was off the rails. Protesters pelted stones, burnt tyres, buses, and effigies of politicians and vandalized government property. Some people were also injured in parts of the state and police had to resort to lathi charge. [caption id=“attachment_2929232” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Normal life came to a standstill in Bengaluru on Saturday due to the statewide strike. PTI[/caption] With Kannada pride in the forefront, the Mahadayi water dispute got the support of the Kannada film industry and all pro- Kannada groups, with many leaders demanding the Prime Minister’s intervention in the dispute. According to The Times of India report, the Mahadayi flows 35 km in Karnataka and 52 km in Goa before flowing into the Arabian Sea. A few parts of Maharashtra also come under the Mahadayi catchment area. Of around 220 tmc-ft water available in the Mahadayi basin, some 200 tmc-ft goes into the Arabian Sea unutilized. Karnataka got an in-principle clearance for the project from the Water Resources Ministry as early as 2002, but Goa moved the Supreme Court in 2006 with a request to set up the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal. This is not the first time there have been violent protests in Karnataka over the sharing of river water with its neighbours. Karnataka has a decades old dispute going on with Tamil Nadu over the sharing of Cauvery river water. Now, a new battle seems to be brewing over the building of a dam on the Mekadatu reservoir. India Today reported of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, asking the Prime Minister to intervene in Karnataka’s plan as it would affect the flow of water into the Cauvery and the livelihood of its farmers. Karnataka proposed the dam to handle the severe drinking water shortage in Bengaluru. This project which started around 2003, along with the Shivanasamudram hydro power project was meant to utilize some 250 tmc-ft of water flowing into the sea. Tamil Nadu has been pressing for the formation of a Cauvery Management Board, which Karnataka is opposing. So emotive has the Cauvery dispute been for both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, that both states witnessed violence, rioting and loss of lives in 1991-1992. Regional jingoism in Karnataka degenerated into attacks on Tamil families and premier schools run by Tamil managements in Bengaluru. The violence was most severe around the Tamil populated parts of Bengaluru, but many schools and educational institutions remained closed in the city for nearly a month. Once again in 2002, the water dispute spilled into the streets, and film stars and a cross section of society from both states supported their own states. Karnataka even saw the blocking of all Tamil TV channels and the barring of all buses and vehicles from Tamil Nadu. The then Karnataka Chief Minister, SM Krishna took up a padayatra from Bengaluru to Mandya to soothe rising tempers. Well-known writer U R Ananthamurthy also joined him in the yatra. With the monsoon taking turns to fail in both states, the Cauvery water dispute is a perennial tinder box waiting to be lit by activists and political parties looking to appease their vote banks. So much so, that in the run-up to the recent Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, both the leading political parties, the DMK and the AIADMK, even added it in their election manifestos. Both parties stated that they would resolve both the Mullaperiyar dam issue with Kerala and the Cauvery river water dispute with Karnataka if their party was voted to power, according to The Hindu . Given the decades old Cauvery dispute, or the nearly decade old Mahadayi dispute, no regional party can really hope to resolve them, as in any inter-state water issue, there are courts and the Centre also trying to find a solution. But what better emotive issue to fuel regional jingoism and pander to the vote bank than water being denied to farmers? As there is no hope of either the Cauvery water dispute or the Mahadayi water dispute dying by 2018, both these will probably also figure in the Karnataka political parties’ manifestos in the 2018 Assembly elections. What we must understand is that India has 14 major rivers, all of which are inter-state rivers, and 44 medium rivers, nine of which are inter-state rivers. So, what would help the states concerned – Karnataka and Goa here in the Mahadayi dispute — to reach an amicable compromise is for political parties and activists to refrain from turning the dispute into a battle for state pride. For, these often turn into violent protests leading to precious loss of life and destruction of government property. Given that drinking water is an essential right that cannot be denied to people living in drought hit regions, inter-state river water disputes perforce cannot be resolved easily and have to be handled sensitively by all the parties involved.