Mahadayi water sharing row between Goa, Karnataka: What is the issue, why it has flared up

Karnataka has dug in its heels, with Water Resources Minister Govind Karjol Monday announcing that tenders for the project would be floated soon and work begin within a month.

What is the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project, and why the dispute?

The Kalasa Banduri Nala project aims to divert water from Mahadayi to satisfy the drinking water needs of Belagavi, Dharwad, Bagalkot and Gadag districts.

Though the project was first proposed in the early 1980s, it has remained on paper owing to a dispute between Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra. As per plans, barrages are to be built against Kalasa and Banduri streams — tributaries of Mahadayi — and water diverted towards Karnataka’s parched districts. Mahadayi originates inside the Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary in the Belagavi district of Karnataka and flows into the Arabian Sea in Goa.

In 2002, two-and-a-half decades since the proposal, the Karnataka government during the tenure of SM Krishna as chief minister decided to implement the project, after the Centre cleared it. Goa, under its then CM Manohar Parrikar, approached the Centre, urging it to assess the available resources in the river and allocate water to the three basin states — Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Due to the protests in Goa and also due to concerns over ecological damage, the project was put on hold by the then NDA government. The dispute gained steam in 2006, when the JD(S)-BJP coalition government in Karnataka decided to start work on the project. Goa then approached the Supreme Court, seeking the creation of a Tribunal to settle the water sharing dispute. A Tribunal was finally set up by the UPA government in November 2010.

What did the Tribunal say?

The Tribunal in 2018 awarded 13.42 TMC water from Mahadayi river basin to Karnataka, 1.33 TMC to Maharashtra and 24 TMC to Goa. In Karnataka’s share, 5.5 TMC was to meet drinking water needs and 8.02 TMC was for hydro-electricity generation.

Of the 5.5 TMC, 3.8 TMC was to be diverted to Malaprabha basin through Kalasa and Banduri Nalas (canals). This was notified by the Central government in February 2020.

What happened after the notification?

After the Tribunal award, Goa filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court in July 2019, challenging the quantum of allocation. Subsequently, in October 2020, it filed a contempt petition before the SC, accusing Karnataka of illegally diverting water from the Mahadayi basin. Civil appeals were also filed by Maharashtra over the dispute.

The project has been a long-standing demand of Karnataka residents set to benefit from it. With Assembly elections due this year, the state government, despite the petitions pending in the SC, has decided to go ahead with the project, after securing a go-ahead from the Central Water Commission (CWC). A clearance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) is still awaited.

Politics over the issue

The December 30 announcement came at the fag end of Bommai’s tenure as CM. The Congress has claimed that the government was forced to make the announcement because the party had scheduled a massive protest over the issue in Hubballi.

“They are lying about every issue… They have shared a DPR approval order without a date. The BJP is trying to make use of the project for political gains,” state Congress president DK Shivakumar said.

JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy noted that MoEF clearance for the project was pending, apart from the various court issues. “The state government should not delay and implement the project at the earliest,” the former CM said.

The latest inter-state dispute, on top of the ongoing border row with Maharashtra, has come as an embarrassment for the BJP in Karnataka. Opposition leaders have taken a dig at the government for being unable to sort out the disputes, despite BJP being in power in Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and at the Centre.