Tribunal ruling affecting states

HYDERABAD: The Justice Brijesh Kumar Tribunal, which had dealt with Krishna River water distribution among riparian states in its final verdict in 2013 — which is still pending with the Centre — had stated that Krishna River flows should be shared among the states even in deficit years like this year.

The tribunal’s contention was that in absence of such a rule, upper states like Karnataka and Maharashtra may impound whatever inflows they get in their dams without releasing water to downstream states.

This is currently adversely affecting the downstream states as they have to wait till the dams in the upper states are filled. If the deficit sharing rule is implemented, upper states will have to release waters as per the entitlements of downstream states.

In the present water year that started from June 1, Almatti and Narayanpur Dams in Karnataka together so far have got 145 TMC ft (11,150 cusecs per day is equal to 1 TMC ft of water) in addition to the dead storage in the dams. The entire inflows were used for generation of power as well as for irrigation purposes under the Upper Krishna Project.

In the first instance, Karnataka raised the Almatti Dam storage and then started releasing waters to Narayanapur Dam after generating power. Narayanapur Dam picking up the inflows from Almatti and diverting it to its canals.