‘We do not have water’: Karnataka government calls all-party meet today over Cauvery water dispute

“CWRC has recommended that Karnataka ensure 5,000 cusecs realization at Biligundlu for next 15 days starting from tomorrow morning (September 13),” the government said in a press release. “Taking note of the severity of the drought in the Cauvery basin of Karnataka which has been increasing and enlarging, putting at risk even the drinking water needs and minimum needs of irrigation, Karnataka made submissions that it is not in a position to release the water unless the inflows into the reservoirs improve,” it added.

The CWRC, after considering Karnataka’s plea, rejected Tamil Nadu’s demand for releasing a total of 12,500 cusecs of water (which is inclusive of the backlog of 6,500 cusecs) for the next 15 days but ordered the release of 5,000 cusecs, the Karnataka government indicated Tuesday.

“There is a big problem with water. If there were water stocks we would not have hesitated from releasing water. We have to ensure that there is a drinking water supply. We have called an emergency all-party meeting of senior leaders, including MPs and also Cauvery basin MLAs,” Karnataka Water Resources Minister and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said. “We do not have water. We may approach higher forums tomorrow,” Shivakumar said, calling for people and the Opposition to cooperate with the government.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the state’s course of action will be decided after the all-party meeting. “We are calling an all-party meeting. We will discuss the issue at the meeting,” he said. The meeting has been scheduled for the afternoon of September 13.

Janata Dal (Secular) party leader and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, who enjoys strong support among farmers in the Cauvery basin, called the CWRC decision “catastrophic”. “The Karnataka government must not release water for any reason,” he said on social media on Wednesday morning.

Kumaraswamy accused the Congress government of not taking the meetings of the Cauvery water authorities seriously. “They have been attending meetings in online mode instead of making direct presentations,” he alleged.

The Karnataka government released 12.97 thousand million cubic (TMC) feet of water between August 14 and 28 and nearly 7 TMC feet of water from August 29 till September 12 as stipulated by the CWMA despite the storage in dams in the Cauvery basin being at 60 per cent of storage levels compared to 2022.

Against a total storage capacity of 114.57 TMC feet in four Cauvery basin dams in Karnataka – Harangi, Hemavathi, Krishna Raja Sagara and Kabini – the storage as of September 12 was 63.80 TMC feet which is 56 per cent of the storage compared to the same time last year when storage was 113.62 TMC feet.

As per the final Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal formula for water sharing with Tamil Nadu – as modified by the Supreme Court in 2018 – Karnataka should release a total of 45.95 TMC feet of water in August and 36.76 TMC feet in September in a normal monsoon season.

The CWRC which calibrates the water-sharing formula depending on the inflows into the Karnataka dams observed on August 28 that the rainfall was deficient by minus 26 per cent in the Cauvery basin in Karnataka.

The committee also observed that Karnataka had only released 30.252 TMC feet of water into the Biligundlu measuring region in Tamil Nadu from June 1 this year to August 28, as opposed to the stipulated 80.451 TMC feet in a normal year. The committee ruled that after considering the distress situation in Karnataka, the state had released 9 TMC feet less water to Tamil Nadu.

The committee also said that Karnataka would have to release 9.3 TMC feet of water from August 29 to September 12 to meet its quota of water release in this period in a distress year. While Tamil Nadu demanded the release of 14,600 cusecs of water per day till September 12, the CWMA, based on the distress findings of the CWRC, ordered the release of 5,000 cusecs per day.

Around 11,000 cusecs of water make up one TMC or thousand million cubic feet of water.