PANAJI: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday said that a team of scientists from the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee, is likely to arrive in Goa on February 26 for the second time to visit the Kalasa Bhandura project site in Kankumbi, Karnataka, to study the salinity of the Mhadei.
Speaking to reporters, Sawant said that he is the only chief minister to ask the Union government to test the salinity of the Mhadei, which he said, Union jal shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat strongly supported.
“Scientists of NIH have informed the state government that they will come to the state on February 26 to conduct the study,” Sawant said.
In September 2020, two NIH scientists visited the Kalasa Bhandura project site in Kankumbi to study the salinity of the Mhadei. After the criticism from the opposition that NIH cannot conduct the study during the monsoon, Sawant said that NIH will again visit the site to conduct the salinity test.
Scientists in their first site visit report said that they found salinity up to 22km from the mouth of the Mhadei. The Union jal shakti ministry had given the team two months to submit their report.
During the NITI Aayog meeting, Sawant had raised the issue and said that the Mhadei water is required to meet the state’s drinking water needs and if diverted would cause damage to flora and fauna too.
The state government had written to the jal shakti ministry on March 6, 2010 expressing apprehensions that the diversion of the Mhadei water would lead to increased salinity in the Mhadei and cause ecological devastation. On July 29, 2020, in a letter to Sawant, Shekhavat said that the NIH has been appointed to examine the salinity issue.