Tamil Nadu: Stalemate In Cauvery Water Sharing
Karnataka, citing the drought in the State and shortage of water to meet the needs of Bengaluru city, refused to release any water to Tamil Nadu: Reports
CHENNAI: The 53rd meeting of the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA), held at New Delhi with S K Haldar of the Central Water Commission on the chair on Wednesday, failed to resolve the dispute relating to the sharing of Cauvery water between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and decided to finalise water sharing on a pro-rata basis at the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) meeting on July 28.
State Water Resources Principal Secretary Sathyabrata Sahoo, who represented Tamil Nadu at the CWMA meeting, said that till July 19 water received at Biligundlu, the inter-state border point where Cauvery enters Tamil Nadu from Karnataka, was 3.442 TMC, which was just 12.15 percent of the allotted 28.337 TMC and demand the release of the State share of water.
He pointed out that the total storage of water in the four reservoirs in Karnataka, as on July 20, was 48.979 TMC and the water received this year was 31.626 TMC, which worked out to 38.79 percent of the average water storage in the last 30 years, he said.
Since water release from the Mettur reservoir in Tamil Nadu stood at 1003 square feet as the level was abysmally low at 36.979 TMC feet with a low rate of inflow, to compensate for the water shortage faced by Tamil Nadu, Cauvery water should be released on pro-rata basis as per the court orders, he said.
Karnataka, citing the drought in the State and shortage of water to meet the needs of Bengaluru city, refused to release any water to Tamil Nadu.
So it was decided to monitor the rains and water flow in the Cauvery and then take a final call on sharing on a pro-rata basis at the meeting on July 28.