The Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA), after being notified formally as a body under the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti in late April, will hold its first meeting through videoconferencing on June 10.
The Central Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) will have its meeting a day ahead (June 9).
The two events will take place a few days before the opening (June 12) of the Mettur dam, regarded as the lifeline of the Cauvery delta in Tamil Nadu, for irrigation.
Sixth meeting
After the establishment of the CWMA in June 2018, this will be its sixth meeting. As for the CWRC, it is the 28th meeting..
To be chaired by Rajendra Kumar Jain, who is also acting as the part-time chairman of the Authority, the CWMA meeting will see the participation of all the basin States — Karnataka and Kerala — and Union Territory of Puducherry.
Secretaries of the Irrigation or Water Resources departments of the constituents of the basin are members of the Authority. K. Manivasan, Principal Secretary (Public Works) is the representative of the Tamil Nadu government.
As Tamil Nadu received around 275 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) of Cauvery water during the 2019-20 water year, which was about 100 tmc ft more than the stipulated quantity, it does not have much to complain against Karnataka.
With the onset of the southwest monsoon (the most important season for the Cauvery basin) on the due date, the proposed meeting is expected to deal with general matters of interest to all the participants. However, Tamil Nadu, in the meeting, may reiterate its stand against proposals of Karnataka such as the Mekadatu project.
Comfortable storage
It is because of the excess flow of the Cauvery water and relatively moderate rainfall during the northeast monsoon (October-December) in 2019 that the dam is now having a comfortable storage. After a gap of 12 years, the dam is getting opened on the customary date. It is after an interval of nine years, the opening is happening in June.
Meanwhile, officials in charge of the Public Works and Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Departments are making attempts to ensure that channels of different categories and other water courses are made free of silt and other obstruction.
These works are being executed essentially through the State government’s special scheme for desilting and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
In addition, the “Kudimaramathu” scheme is in progress.
Even though the date of opening of the Mettur dam is only a week away, the authorities have programmed the execution of the works in anticipation of the period of water flow. For example, at the tail of the Cauvery system — say in Nagapattinam district — water is likely to reach only in the fourth week, beginning from June 22, and Pudukottai will get its turn of water in August, points out a PWD official.