There’s no concept of clearing projects based on floodwaters, says MoJS ex-Advisor

HYDERABAD

There is no concept of floodwaters in the country, particularly while giving clearance to irrigation projects by various agencies implementing the river water related laws, and in case any water is referred to with that term it is only imaginary and illusionary as no project is given clearance based on floodwaters.

This was stated by former Advisor to the Ministry of Jal Shakti and former Chairman of the Task Force on Interlinking of Rivers Sriram Vedire here on Tuesday. In a presentation made on river water issues, particularly on ‘Godavari Waters: Facts and Figures – A Way Forward for Telugu States’, he stated that surplus water is saving of water by a basin-State in its allocated share at 75% dependability.

He explained that the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal had categorised the water in the basin as ‘all waters, remaining waters and specific numbers (waters)‘ — all translated as assured water by the Central Water Commission and the agency (CWC) had assessed the availability of 3,396.9 tmc ft water at 75% dependability, average flows at 4,535.1 tmc ft and the average water above 75% dependability at 1,138.2 tmc ft.

The average flows of about 3,000 tmc ft into sea for the last 57 years being cited by Andhra Pradesh, which includes the availability of 1,138.2 tmc ft flows above 75% dependability was mainly due to non-utilisation of assured water by the basin States Chhattisgarh, Telangana (both about 400 tmc ft each), Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha (to some extent) and also due to spillovers due to their limitations in the storage capacity and other operational constraints, Mr. Sriram noted.

As a result, the CWC’s assessment of average flows of about 1,138 tmc ft above 75% dependability would not sanctify their utilisation by any basin State as the water flowing downstream, including into sea, could not be differentiated as assured water or average water since several projects operate with varying storage capacities and with different operational protocols, the former MoJS Advisor pointed out.

On A.P.’s PBLP proposal

Coming to the specific and contentious issue of A.P.’s proposal to take up Polavaram-Banakacherla Link Project to utilise floodwaters, he observed that if A.P. was allowed to go ahead with the project based on floodwaters for being the terminal State in the basin it would stir up a hornet’s nest as every co-basin would go for new projects based on floodwaters. “It will be an endless game if every State starts building projects using floodwaters,” he said.

In case Chhattisgarh plans to utilise its share, it would have to be compensated in a different form or the Godavari-Cauvery Interlinking had to be reworked. He felt that more storage was required in the Godavari Basin for Telangana to utilise its share of water.