Implementation of the project would lead to water scarcity in Hassan and Mangaluru
The state government plans to divert water from Yettinahole river to arid districts like Kolar, Chikkaballapur and Tumakuru.
Mangaluru: Claims by the state government on diverting 24 TMC feet of water from Yettinahole to arid districts of Karnataka has been negated by a team of experts of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. They have warned that the inflated values on water yield in the catchment areas would only lead to the failure of the water diversion scheme.
Western Ghats Task Force former chairman Ananth Hegde Ashisar told Deccan Chronicle that the study titled Environmental Flow Assessment in Yettinahole: Where is 24 TMC to divert? conducted by Dr Ramachandra T.V., Vinay S and Bharath H. Aithal of IISc was released on Saturday during “Save Western Ghats,” programme at Puttur.
The study has found that the Yettinahole catchment area receive annual rainfall of 3000 – 4500 mm (based on the data of Department of Statistics, Government of Karnataka). “The total runoff yield from the catchment is estimated to be 9.55 TMC in contrast to the estimated 24TMC in the DPR (detailed Project report prepared by Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Limited) or 22 TMC (as per Karnataka Power Corporation). The inflated values of water yield in the catchment would only lead to the failure of water diversion scheme similar to Telugu Ganga Project.
Implementation of the project would affect the livelihood of people in the Yettinahole catchment area and would not benefit the likely beneficiaries, the report stated. “The residents of Yettinahole would be deprived of their right to water, while people in the arid regions would only get to see dry canals. Implementation of the project would lead to water scarcity in Hassan and Mangaluru, and will not benefit Chikkballapura and Kolar,” the report noted.
( Source : dc )
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