Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has in principle agreed to Karnataka’s demand for water to be released from its reservoirs for drinking purposes in Belagavi district with the condition that Karnataka should also release water from its reservoirs to drought-hit districts in that State.
On Saturday, a BJP delegation from the State met Mr. Fadnavis, who had also received a personal request from Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar for release of water for drinking purposes in Belagavi, Bagalkot, and Vijayapura districts on the Karnataka-Maharashtra border.
‘Based on availability’
“I told the delegation that we will give water based on availability, but at the same time they should enter into a memorandum of understanding with us to provide water to parts of our State from Almatti reservoir. Mr. Shivakumar has agreed to it. The respective secretaries of the two States will work on that immediately. Based on our needs and availability, if surplus water is available we will give them for drinking purposes,” Mr. Fadnavis told The Hindu.
In March, Mr. Shivakumar had written to Mr. Fadnavis seeking release of 2 tmcft of water from the Koyna or the Warna into the Krishna and 2 tmcft of water from Ujjani dam into the Bhima to help the dry districts of north Karnataka. Multiple meetings had been held by bureaucrats from both sides, during which Maharashtra had raised the issue of water-for-water: water released from Koyna or Warna dams should be along with Karnataka’s release of water from Upper Krishna project reservoirs at Almatti and Narayanpur or Krishna basin projects such as Tubachi.
On Friday, a delegation led by MLAs Srimant Patil and Anand Nyamagoudar met Maharashtra Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan; and on Saturday, another delegation led by BJP Rajya Sabha member Prabhakar Kore met the Maharashtra Chief Minister.
Anger has spilled out on the streets of Manjari village on the banks of the Krishna since Thursday after farmers got the wind of the reciprocal water release demand. “We don’t need a ‘water-for-water’ agreement. This is not a business. We need a practical solution that works on the principles of equity and justice. Rivers belong to all riparian States and water should be shared equally and unconditionally,” said Ashok Chandaragi, convener of Kannada associations in the district.
Reservations
An engineer with the Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam, the agency that handles projects on the Krishna, has expressed reservations about the proposal. “Release of water from the Tubachi-Babaleshwar irrigation project is not practical. Work is still under way on this. If we have to release water from the intake jackwell back into the river, we either have to stop using a third of our share or release it at a distance, after sucking it in at the inlet. This needs some design changes and will take time,” the engineer said.