Revision as of 07:54, 10 July 2023

Introduction

=A backgrounder

Arun Janardhanan, June 2, 2023: The Indian Express

The main opposition in Tamil Nadu, AIADMK, has warned of protests if Karnataka proceeds with the construction of the contentious dam project. AIADMK general secretary K Palaniswami criticised Shivakumar’s remarks.

Palaniswami claimed that under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956, Karnataka is legally prohibited from obstructing or altering the natural course of a river. He also referred to the final judgment on the Cauvery water dispute, asserting that no irrigation project can start without the lower riparian states’ consent.

In December 2018, when he was Chief Minister, Palaniswami had written to the Prime Minister, urging him to stop a feasibility study being conducted for the project in Karnataka.

What is the Mekedatu project?

The Mekedatu dam project is located in Ramanagaram district about 100 km south of Bengaluru, close to where the Cauvery enters Tamil Nadu. The project has been contentious for years.

The dam, with a proposed capacity of 48 TMC (thousand million cubic) feet and an estimated cost of Rs 6,000 crore, aims to supply drinking water to Bengaluru and replenish the regional groundwater table.

In November 2014, the Karnataka government under Chief Minister Siddaramaiah invited expressions of interest in the project and, in its 2015 Budget, allocated Rs 25 crore for a detailed project report. Shivakumar was Water Resources Minister in Siddaramaiah’s government at the time.

The Mekedatu dam will be larger than the Krishnaraja Sagar project on the Cauvery. The Central Water Commission (CWC) had cleared a feasibility study for the project in 2018.

In his statement this week, Shivakumar said Rs 1,000 crore has been earmarked for the project. In 2018, he had defended the project, saying it would “not come in the way of releasing the stipulated quantum of water to Tamil Nadu, nor will it be used for irrigation purposes”. He had said that the Karnataka government was ready to hold talks with Tamil Nadu on the Mekedatu issue.

What is the history of opposition to the project?

Tamil Nadu witnessed widespread protests against the dam in 2015, with a statewide bandh that was supported by various stakeholders. The state Assembly passed unanimous resolutions against the project in December 2018 and January 2022.

Ahead of the 2016 Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Captain Vijayakanth of DMDK had led a delegation of Opposition leaders to meet the Prime Minister on the issue. Siddaramaiah too had led an all-party delegation from Karnataka to the Prime Minister seeking the Centre’s cooperation in the project.

In August 2021, Tamil Nadu approached the Supreme Court against the project. Tamil Nadu’s key arguments are that Karnataka is attempting to modify the flow of the river by constructing two reservoirs on it.

The action violates the final award of the CRWT, and would impound the flow in the intermediate catchment below the Krishnaraja Sagar and Kabini reservoirs, and Billigundulu, along the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the state has argued.

What is the Mekedatu project?

Bansy Kalappa, February 6, 2022: The New Indian Express

Environmentalists are saying interlinking of rivers is not an ecologically sound idea...

The plan to connect Cauvery river with other rivers is not specific to Karnataka or South India. There is a national plan here. The overall idea is to connect 30 large rivers across the country and of these, 16 are peninsular rivers, while the remaining 14, including Ganga, originate in the Himalayas. The amount needed for interlinking of all the rivers will be upwards of Rs 6 lakh crore. Remember, these are projects will help us not only with water, but also power. The plan is to generate 5.5 gigawatt of energy nationally, and it will obviously need a network of canals and setting up of reservoirs to store and pump water. Water from some rivers has to be lifted using pumps. Once done, these projects will help solve water shortage in large parts of Karnataka, right from Chitradura, Haveri, Tumakuru, Kolar to Chikkaballapur that are drought prone. The river-linking projects will alleviate the perennial water shortage in these parts. There is a history behind it.

What do you mean by the history of interlinking of rivers?

The idea of river linking is not new. It was spoken about in the early seventies by former minister Dr KL Rao, who had said that the Ganga and Cauvery should be linked. During the Janata Party government of Morarji Desai, Capt Dastur had considered this issue. When Indira Gandhi came back to power later, the issue was raised again. More recently, the Vajpayee government too discussed it extensively at the highest level.

Some experts say justice should be done to Karnataka in sharing of river waters

The excess water from Mahanadi and Godavari are being brought south through a network of canals and reservoirs. While Mahanadi is under dispute, water from Godavari will be shared between Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. The earlier report had mentioned about Karnataka getting water from Mahanadi. Now, we are fighting to include our share in the modified report.

The Mekedatu project with a capacity of 67 tmcft was cleared by the Cauvery tribunal in 2007 and by the Supreme Court in 2018. Still, why is the government dragging its feet?

The state government is working on it. There is movement at various levels in Delhi. The Mekedatu project is being taken up only to take our legally allocated share of Cauvery waters. The project will help Bengaluru.

Many in Karnataka are not happy with interlinking of rivers involving Cauvery.

Karnataka was not happy with the linking of Cauvery, Vaigai and Gundar rivers, as Tamil Nadu is seeking to utilise excess water there. Karnataka will take it up legally as being an upper riparian state, it has a right over excess waters.

Environmentalists are pointing to PH levels of different rivers and are expressing concern over loss of land to create canals, reservoirs, etc

If water is brought to areas that are drought-prone and are perennially short of this precious resource, is it not good? On the argument over PH value, there are no problems with freshwater, and issues will arise only if saltwater or brackish water is mixed. Experts are looking into all these finer points.

Mekedatu: A timeline

The Hindu, March 31, 2015

The contentious Mekedatu dam, envisaged across the Cauvery to supply drinking water to Bangalore and Ramanagaram, has for months been a bone of contention between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

September, 2013 : The then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had written to the then prime minister Manmohan Singh urging him to advice Karnataka government not to take up any schemes in the Cauvery basin without the consent of Tamil Nadu.

November, 2014 : Karnataka invites Expression of Interest from global consultants to take up a drinking water project at Mekedatu in Kanakapura taluk of Ramanagaram district. This project designed to be bigger than the Krishnaraja Sagar

13 March, 2015 : Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in his budget speech proposed preparing a detailed project report for construction of “balancing reservoir” on the upstream of Mekedatu across Cauvery river in Kanakapura taluk in Ramanagaram district.

27 March, 2015 : Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly moved a unanimous resolution urging the Centre to stop the proposed project by Karnataka. Irrigation Minister M.B. Patil says the State’s legal team set to fight Tamil Nadu's objections to the proposed project across the Cauvery.

28 March, 2015 : Tamil Nadu parliamentarians, cutting across party lines, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Farmers’ bodies call for a Tamil Nadu bandh on March 28 over the Mekadatu dam row.

29 March, 2015 : Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda visited the site. There is “no logic” in Tamil Nadu’s objection. “The project will utilise water that flows into the sea and Tamil Nadu need not be apprehensive.”