Why’s TN making a fuss? State has released 61 TMC excess water

Shilpa P | NT

Mysuru: At a time when Congress leaders in the state are all set to launch a padayatra on the Mekedatu issue, Karnataka, which received excess rains during the recent monsoons, has already released 61 TMC of surplus Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu from the four dams in the Cauvery basin from June 2021 so far. One reason for this is that there is no balancing reservoir to hold excess water downstream of the Cauvery. “Since the state has been receiving excess rains from 2018, it has been able to release its share of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu much in advance.

Since the frequency of extreme rainfall is picking up in the Cauvery basin since 2018, the Mekedatu project must be implemented to ensure storage of excess water,” said former director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), Dr GS Srinivas Reddy.

He explained, “The four reservoirs in the Cauvery basin including Harangi, Hemavathi, KRS and Kabini can hold 104 TMC of water. We can store 67 TMC of surplus Cauvery water at the proposed Mekedaatu balancing reservoir whenever there is excess rain. Whenever we do not get adequate rains, we can release water from Mekedatu to TN,” Dr Reddy said.

The State has already released 238 TMC of Cauvery water to TN when it is supposed to release only 177.25 tmc for the entire water year (June 2021 to May- June 2022) as per the final order of the Cauvery water dispute tribunal.

According to an expert, Tamil Nadu is taking up an interlinking river water project (Cauvery-Agniyar- South Vellar-Manimuthar- Vaigai-Gundar river project), wherein they are diverting 40 TMC of surplus Cauvery water to catchment areas, which reportedly goes against the final order of the Cauvery water dispute tribunal.