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29/10/17
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I found most of the answers on this topic is opinionated and Judgmental. I don’t want to do the same. I thought I can present you with a fact, I want you to take your own conclusion out of it. This answer is more of a enabler for you to find a short term and long term solution to this issue, which divides 150 million people.
They are Three Things involved in the Cauvery issue
- Livelihood, 2. Ethnic Dominance , 3. Politics
Livelihood
Each state blaming the other on water issue
Karnataka ViewPoint
- Tamil Nadu got higher share of water in the 2007 tribunal award, which is based on the agreement between madras state and Mysore state at 1892 and 1924, it is skewed to support Tamil Nadu.
- Tamil Nadu has bigger farmland than karnataka, wherein Tamil nadu farmers grow three crops a year (samba, Kuruvai, Thaladi)
- Karnataka needs drinking water for its people in Mysore, Bangalore, Mandya..etc
- Tamil nadu has unsustainable agriculture practice
- Tamil nadu wastes lots of water in the sea
- Mandya , Hassan, Mysore, Chamrajnagar, Ramnagara, Chikmagalur..etc farmers need cauvery water.
- Karnataka can’t release water to Tamil Nadu till its water needs are met
- From 1950–72 Tamil Nadu increased its farm area by more than 6lakh acre
- Center should not setup cauvery management board that creates an independent authority to manage the cauvery river water as mentioned in tribunal award 2007
- Present cauvery tribunal award is not reflecting the actual ground requirements of the state, since it has not considered the industrialization and ground water levels.
- During a good monsoon season, Karnataka will release the tribunal award of 190 TMC to Tamil nadu. Karnataka has full authority to use the remaining water (on and above the 270 TMC allotted to it).
- During deficit monsoon year, Karnataka will give a priority to its drinking water requirements and basic farm needs of its farmers. Tamil nadu should not expect much water from karnataka (since we are in distress). There is no distress formula given in cauvery tribunal award.
- Most of the regions in Karnataka (except south east and some portion of North east karnataka) only receive south west monsoon, which ends in September, but Tamil nadu will receives its rain in the North east monsoon which starts in September end. So there is a possibility of Tamil nadu getting more water.
Tamil Nadu View point
- Historically Tamil nadu is using cauvery water for its agriculture and drinking water needs, so newfound use of cauvery in karnataka shouldn’t reduce the water for Tamil nadu
- Cauvery only forms delta in Tamil nadu (east of trichy), so it has really rich soil. Historically before British period it always had three crops.
- For last twenty years, Tamil nadu farmers are struggling to even have two crops. Historically mettur dam used to open on June 12, but since the last sixteen years it has been postponed to July now even in september we are not able to open our dam, due to blockage of cauvery by Karnataka
- Karnataka constructed many check dams in cauvery without getting consent from Tamil nadu, which reduces the river flow significantly. There’s no transparency in the water level in these check dams
- Cauvery is the only major river in Tamil nadu, Karnataka has Krishna and untapped west flowing rivers which can be tapped for drinking water
- Karnataka has to see Tamil Nadu as equal partner and not just as a place to dump flood water
- Drinking and Agricultural heart of Tamil Nadu is dependent on the cauvery river; it can’t give away historical rights of water utilization (since in the international water sharing ruling, historical rights are considered higher priority ). One of the oldest working structure in the world “kallanai Dam” was built by Chola’s (2 century AD) on cauvery. Our cauvery farming is 2000+ year old. Tamil nadu has civilization rights in cauvery.
- Karnataka is diverting water to many industries illegally in the name of drinking water and irrigation
- Karnataka is not releasing to Tamil nadu, its share of water on time as per the tribunal award
- Karnataka is taking decisions of building structures in cauvery arrogantly without the consent of lower riparian state
- Implement cauvery management board as suggested in cauvery tribunal award 2007.
- Cauvery tribunal award reduced Tamil nadu share from 487 TMC (in 1991) to 419 TMC, which was not inline with the state requirement.
- More than 14 districts in Tamil nadu depends on cauvery; we have more people and basin area than Karnataka
- During distress (deficit monsoon) year, Karnataka has to share water with Tamil nadu. Karnataka should not wait until fulfillment of their requirement. Proportional sharing in tribunal has to followed during distress monsoon.
- Already kuruvai failed in cauvery basin, Our samba crops have to planted before August end to face the north east monsoon, otherwise we will lose our harvest.
- Extra water in cauvery to be shared based on Tribunal proportion
- Thirty years before, Early June, Tamil Nadu opened its dam for farming, due to increased requirement of karnataka, it went to july, last few years it postponed to August now even in September our dams are not having enough capacity above drinking water need.
Water Potential of Tamil nadu and Karnataka
Lets see the water potential of each state to understand the importance of cauvery for each state.
Karnataka River Basin map
Cauvery drains 17% of karnataka, Krishna river drains around 59% of Karnataka (RIVER SYSTEMS OF KARNATAKA), Pennar, Palar and west flowing rivers do the remaining job.
India has avg annual rainfall of 1200 mm with an area of 3,287,263
Karnataka has average rainfall of 1152 mm (approx) over the area of 191791 sq..km with a population of around 6.4 Cr, Udupi district has maximum of 4180 mm rainfall, Chitradurga district has minimum of 570 mm rainfall. North Interior Karnataka has the lowest rainfall, coastal region has the highest (so more water for Arabian sea).
Tamil nadu has an average rainfall of around 958 mm, with an area of over 130060 sq..km has the population of around 7.7 Cr people. The Nilgiris district has maximum of 1695 mm rainfall, Thoothukudi district receives minimum rainfall of 655.7 mm rainfall.
South central (Virudhunagar, Thoothukudi, ramanathapuram , Sivaganga, ..etc) and north central TN are the driest regions (Vellore, Thiruvannamalai..etc)
Tamil Nadu River Map , Cauvery is the biggest river of Tamil nadu
Some info about Karnataka
Some info about Tamil nadu
Cauvery Basin (please, do not misinterpret the data)
Cauvery Basin - As per expert committee, cauvery has around 740 TMC water (based on 50% availability) , it is less than the tributary of Godavari -Pranhita , Krishna river has 2100TMC. So Cauvery is not that large a river , compared to Krishna and Huge Godavari (just for comparison)
Cauvery Tribunal Award
TOP 11 Dams in terms of capacity in Karnataka and Tamil nadu
Karnakata
Top 11 Dams in Tamil Nadu (Just want to include Amaravathi)
This above picture show the water problem of Tamil nadu, but Karnataka as a separate entity should not held be responsible for population and lower water resources in Tamil nadu, but Karnataka has to ensure Cauvery basin in tamil nadu gets its due share. As per tribunal, it should release 192 TMC water from its dam to tamil nadu (419 TMC tamil nadu share - 192 TMC from Karnataka and 229 TMC from rain water from tamil nadu basin area). Cauvery is lifeline for Southern Karnataka but cauvery is lifeline for entire Tamil nadu. Karnataka is 1.5 times bigger than tamil nadu in area but has 80% population of tamil nadu. Tamil nadu is in the rain shadow region, so it can't afford to lose rights on any water. More population with lesser rainfall will make tamil nadu fight harder for its rights
Before jumping into the Cauvery issue, i just want to give you an information about overview of Indian river system and this will help reader to get a comparative view on water quantity. if you are only interested in cauvery issue just skip this part.
What is TMC, how big is Cauvery ..? . How much water India has.?
TMC-1000 million cubic feet = around 28 Billion liters of water (28000000000 litres of water). Is TMC too big quantity of water, the answer is yes and no. It is no, if you compare the river system of the state. It is big, if you look into a personal individual water consumption.
How much water India receives every year ..?, how cauvery compare to other Indian river in size.. Worlds biggest river Amazon has overall water flow of 2,32,767 TMC (bigger than next 10 river capacity combined).
Source - WRIS - Govt of India
what many people failed to understand is the size of the Godavari (which flows across MP (10%), MH (48.8%), CT (10.6%), AP(4.5%), TS (18.8%), KA(1.4%), OR(5.7%)), Godavari is bigger than one of the worlds (1st/2nd) longest river Nile (3151 TMC). Godavari and Mahanadi has better water availability, which just sits near to water scarce Krishna and Cauvery. You don’t need Ganga or Brahmaputra to solve the water problem. Some of the west flowing rivers starts very near to some of the cauvery tributaries like Hemavathi. (Coastal Karnataka people will get angry) and Bhavani.
How much water India, Karnataka and Tamil nadu receives annually
India’s annual average rainfall is 1160 mm, highest among the country of comparable size (that’s why, we have around 18% of Humanity)
Reference:- Rakesh Kumar, R. D. Singh and K. D. Sharma, Water resources of India, Current Science Journal, Indian Institute of science, Bangalore, VOL. 89, NO. 5,pp-794–811 ,2005 .
http://www.iisc.ernet.in/
Karnataka’s Problem
Karnataka has second highest desertification in India after Rajasthan, though it has Krishna, Cauvery, Nethravathi, Pennar, Shravathi, Kali nadhi, Mahadayi..etc some of its districts are very dry; it is not able to use its water to improve their lives. The grand Malnad region of Karnataka, feeds majority of population of South India (except Kerala)
Somehow karnataka is not getting its share .. Karnataka has been given lesser share than its basin area due to historical use, since Andhra was historically doing agriculture in Krishna basin, it been given higher share than karnataka, Karnataka has 44% of Krishna's catchment area, but as per Krishna award it only gets 34% of Krishna water. Karnataka hosts around 42% of cauvery basin area, but it gets around 37-38% of cauvery water. Tamil nadu contains around 54% of cauvery catchment area and gets 57% of cauvery water share. Though many river pass through Karnataka, they are not helping the state.
Krishna River Basin Area
Water Award
Maharashtra-560 TMC
Karnataka-700 TMC
Andhra Pradesh (united)-800 TMC
Maharashtra-560 TMC
Karnataka-700 TMC
Andhra Pradesh (united)-800 TMC
Although Karnataka been given lesser water in Krishna as compared to cauvery, why only cauvery issue getting that much hype whereas Krishna is not posing any problem (lets discuss this in the political section)
There is shift in agricultural practices in both the states, in the last five years, area under sugercane in Karnataka increased five times, from 91ooo Ha in 1971 to 410000/620000 Ha at 2015. Mandya is also called sugarcane belt of Karnataka (which is based on cauvery river), sugarcane is very water intensive crop. Unfortunately Karnataka and Tamil nadu are third and fourth largest producer of sugarcane in India. Karnataka and Tamil nadu are top two drought prone states of India. Both states has unsustainable agricultural crops. Goa also accuses Karnataka of giving 4 lakh liters water from malaprabha river to Pepsico unit in Dharwad. Tamil nadu is no better, it provides 15 lakhs litre of water to Pepsi plant per day from Tambirabarani river. Both states lags in water recycling , water management and both has poor agricultural insight (like every other states in india).
The Bangalore problem
The Answer —-> Karnataka had/has southward development and most of the development happened in and around the Bangalore-Mysore belt (which is in the Cauvery basin). So there is need for more water for industries and people in Bangalore urban and rural areas. Bangalore population increased from 41 lakhs in 1991 to 96 lakhs in 2011.
Tamil nadu and Karnataka had an agreement - 1998 Pact on Bangalore & Hogenakal Projects was based on the premise that both states won't obstruct drinking water schemes from Cauvery as long as the water drawn for such a project was sourced from the respective state's share of Cauvery water. But Karnataka had a very high water requirement for its southward development which hurt mandya, ramnagara and Mysore farmers, since they got water from KRS dam, which was the irrigation dam for these districts. So Karnataka is in deep requirement of water for its new uses. Karnataka felt Tamil nadu farming is not as important when compared to its own drinking water requirement. There is a genuine problem in South karnataka regarding water resources, but how can it be solved without hurting Tamil nadu is a big question. You need very high investment on getting other resources to these regions.
Big question - Is Karnataka's claim on priority in using water falling in its boundary without giving to Tamil Nadu or .. can Karnataka have another water saving plan to supply its people the water.. ???
This is the big question facing every developing country in the world, no one has the answer, everyone was talking about different rainwater harvesting and water saving techniques, river linking. Israel can teach every Indian how to use water efficiently. As per international ruling historical water uses get priority while new found uses do not; hence Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Bangladesh..etc have to get their share of water irrespective of water requirement in upper riparian state.
Is Tamil nadu using its water responsibly
The answer is Yes and No, Cauvery is the major river in Tamil Nadu and even TN is diverting Cauvery water to Chennai (around 10–20% of Chennai's water requirement). But Tamil Nadu is not doing enough to maintain its own ponds, lakes and dams, which are all silted and polluted. Noyyal river- A tributary of cauvery is fully polluted. Vaigai dam - which is the lifeline of Madurai region silted heavily without government taking any action.
Orthathupalyam dam across the river Noyyal may be the only dam in the world in which farmers will protest not to open the dam, as it is full of chemical waste (it will degrade their farm land)
Tamil nadu government’s water resources dept have to protect its water resources and improve their water saving techniques. Jaya spent around 35000 cr in five years on freebies out of which around Rs.15000 Cr were unnecessary. Had she spent the same on water resources, it would have saved Tamil nadu.
Bangalore water crisis → All lakes in Bangalore are heavily polluted and are beyond use (worse than Chennai - which is supposed to be a worst).
This is not Kashmir, it is Bangalore's largest lake - Bellandur Lake..
Do you know, where this water goes? Don’t be surprised, this water goes to Then Pennar River, which is used as drinking water for more than 30 lakh people in tamil nadu. (if you are from Krishnagiri and Thiruvannamalai district, you may be drinking this water)
Lakes are burning in Bangalore- Chennai is not better (just visit Adyar and Coovum). It is not due to industrial waste but mainly due to domestic waste (your detergent powder, Soap, Urine, Shampoo..etc)
Lethargic attitude of Tamil nadu government towards maintaining its water resources
Both the states are Hypocrites , who just fight for emotion, when most of their rivers are polluted and wasted without a cause…
There is an excellent article in The Wire which quotes, If stewardship were a pre-condition to enjoying the waters of the river, neither Tamil Nadu nor Karnataka would qualify for even a drop of the river’s water.
Karnataka needs better water management, which should reduce load on cauvery. Look for a contingency plan.
Why is the River water creating a big problem between two states-There is Tamil-Kannada problem - Political Angle
There is no another opinion on immense water problem faced by regions like Mandya (once a mighty agriculture district) , due to high migration and rapid industrialization in the south Karnataka region centered around Bangalore. Bangalore is the power center of the state, which has its own issues related to ethnicity. Till 1947 Bangalore had two distinct regions; one region was Pete (where kannada speaking people formed a majority) and another one was Bangalore cantonment (where Tamil speaking people formed a majority).
After 1956 when you had united Mysore state, Bangalore which host the capital had significant (sometime dominant) Tamil and Telugu community. So Kannada people felt little discriminated and unconformable to have dominant Tamil minority community in their capital (within 50km from Tamil nadu). Tamil nadu govt did wonderful job in Chennai to strip its Telugu identity , the same way Karnataka want it to do in Bangalore. So there is always a little friction between the communities. Also south Karnataka is political epicenter for Karnataka politics , it also host economic centre of the state (Coastal, North and Hyderabad Karnataka didn’t have this much influence in the state affairs). So political importance and friction within communities exploded in the supreme court initial cauvery board order at 1991, riot broke out in south karnataka, around 20+ Tamilians were killed more than 100000 Tamils were forced to leave Bangalore-Mysore belt. Karnataka start following the footstep of Dravidian politics of Tamil nadu (I am periyarist , but don’t support some policy of DMK and ADMK), started kannadification of bangalore (tamil nadu did tamilification of Chennai), come to bangalore , you will see everywhere Kempe Gowda name from airport to railway station to Bus stand.
Technical issue like water sharing is taken over by Kannada fanatics and Tamil fanatics, so these people see water issue as ethnicity and linguistic and regional issue, it creates hatred among people in the respective states. Due to its emotional value , politicians started doing their politics.
Jayalalithaa who became CM at 1991 didn’t had respect from every part of the Dravidian ideologist. So when cauvery issue escalated in 1993, Jayalalithaa fasted unto death at 1993, this gave her sympathy and her place as leader for Tamils.
Veerapan who kidnapped rajkumar supposed (not true) to have said that he was unhappy with Karnataka govt treatment of Tamil farmers.
Kannada cine actors who supposed to be acting got into cauvery issue, so it brought tamil film industry on to protest, so this increased the protest galore across two states (stardom for the protest) .
Karnataka had rapid Bangalore centric growth in last 20 years, due to this, there was a exponential increase in water requirement, cauvery was near to Bangalore, so it came into power and economical politics. So Tamil nadu forced to starve becoz of new found use in cauvery , so upper riparian state start doing its thing, which starved the historical user, which too suffer from heighten water issue.
So these political, economical, fanatical power game made all these issue unbearable for we normal public. This will continue, Cauvery issue will be seen as Tamil-Kannada issue. we can’t help, we Indian have to get matured, i am not seeing this happening anytime soon..Lets do our thing “worried, frustrated, ashamed”
Different Political outfits ruling the Tamil nadu and Karnataka also fueling the problem. Since Congress and BJP are considered to be side show in Tamil nadu. DMK and AIADMK not existent in karnataka . This gave a free hand for politicians to politicize the issue without losing any vote bank . It won’t happen between Gujarat, Madya pradesh and Maharashtra which shares many rivers and political parties.
This time around central government failed to mediate between the states. Vajpayee and Manmohan singh arranged many meeting between two chief ministers. despite Karnataka CM repeated request to mediate in this matter, central government is maintaining dead silent till forenoon. Congress in the state, BJP in the central is the worst combo for poll bound Karnataka. Karnataka CM try to get BJP central government to the fight, but BJP trying everything to make state government as a scapegoat in this Cauvery issue. BJP protesting against failure of state to convince Supreme court. When Jagadish Shetter of BJP did the same thing, Congress was protesting against BJP government for releasing the water and failure to convince supreme court. Same blame game continuous between DMK and AIDMK (In TN, no one cares about central govt stand, since less of scapegoating in this time around, becoz no TN parties are in the central coalition)
What is the Root cause of the Problem
We indians concentrate more on emotion and opinion than facts and reality. Water sharing is a technical process which have to be carry out by Ecologist, Irrigation export, Sanitation export, Earth science specialist , civil engineer , Agriculture export, farmers, Water resources expert and energy engineer not by Tamil,Kannada fanatics , politicians, caste organization or you and me (normal public). Independent export committee who understands the technicality and requirement should manage the affairs without any bias. So It is mandatory to setup a cauvery water management board (not just cauvery, every water resources across country)
if you have free time, first see this ground zero report by Rajya Sabha TV
What no one cares-Pollution in Cauvery
Pollution in Cauvery - cauvery polluted by Karnataka and Tamil nadu without mercy.
Lifeline of Tamil nadu Mettur dam pollution
Lets fight, who is strong, Is it tamilians or Kannadiga’s, but forget the pollution in Cuavery and Kill our resources and fight crazy between the states. My Stupid Country. Our lands are diabolic lagging Zinc, Phosphorus and Potassium, our prioity is on bandh and enmity.
For people from karnataka who thinks, Tamil nadu robbing their water, using it illegally for unwanted purpose- Tamil nadu has genuine requirement of cauvery, the biggest dam in Tamil nadu (bigger than all other dam in TN combined) purely relay on water from Karnataka and small river stream Palaru. It is the high time karnataka govt to find alternative source for Bangalore (e.g. Chennai has five water sources- 1. Four lakes of Chennai(50–60% of Chennai water) 2. Telugu Ganga project (diverting Krishna to Chennai) 3. Veeranam project (Diverting cauvery to chennai), 4.desalination Plant (converting sea water to drinking water, three biggest plant in india) 5. Bore walls across three districts). But Bangalore rely mainly on cauvery. When Chennai, which far from Krishna can get Krishna water, Bangalore which is in the state where Krishna has maximum catchment area also can get a water (yes altitude problem have to solved). Karnataka has Lingamanakki dam , water in this dam used mainly for generating electricity, so Karnataka should listen to expert opion on using its water for Bangalore. As of now Bangalore uses around 19 TMC water, as per BWSSB, only 50% of water pumped from cauvery reaches Bangalore remaining water is disappearing some where.
Misinformation Spread In Karnataka
I was watching TV9, Swarna news..etc. There were lot of misinformation given in those news channels, which project Tamil Nadu in a bad light. Let me present you physical facts (not emotion)
- Most circulated misinformation is “ Tamil nadu had already finished its two crops, asking water for its third crop”. Greedy Tamil nadu
- It is wrong, Yes, Tamil nadu cauvery region has three crop patterns 1. Kuruvai (April to July), 2.Samba/Thaladi (August to November) 3. Navarai/ Kodai (December to March) , not all farmers will do, all the three crops, everyone chose two crops . Also Kuruvai cultivation used to happen for 4.5 Lakhs acre, last four years it was less than 1.25–1.5 Lakh acre, only people who has a well, village lake and pump-set doing this crop (cauvery was not opened for these crops for last four years), as per cauvery tribunal award Karnataka should release 10 TMC on June and 34 TMC on July for this Kuruvai crop. Historically TN will release water from mettur for water intensive Kuruvai crop on June-12, but last four years, it didn’t happen, also this year TN is not using cauvery water for this Kuruvai crops. Samba is the main crop, initial water requirement will be met from the water released by Karnataka in the month of August and September, after that, farmers will rely on north east monsoon . Since you can’t sow paddy in the direct rain, initial sowing will be done using karnataka cauvery water , so crops will be grown enough to use north east monsoon, which takes it to the harvest (it is a technical issue).Small, marginal farmers bear the brunt of ‘kuruvai’ loss
- Tamil Nadu govt will release water to samba crop only when mettur dam (more than 80% depends on water from Karnataka) reaches 60TMC capacity out of 94TMC , but this year till yesterday (Sept-15) water was around 45 TMC (Yes Mettur is not overflowing, an another misinformation, it is below 50% of its capacity), since Kuruvai was not happened fully, so Tamil Nadu government decided to release water on 20th Sep-2016, that day mettur may reach 50 TMC, Mettur won’t be released below certain threshold to keep drinking water purpose (I know, This year somehow , Karnataka don’t have enough water for its drinking water), keep in mind, many towns and cities of TN, drinking water supplied from Mettur. So it is the main source of Drinking water for Tamil Nadu. To mark Harvest of the Samba crops, Tamil nadu people celebrate their important festival Pongal.
- Third crop (done by very few places, by very few farmers) is maximum depends on North east monsoon and ground water.
- This year, till yesterday from June, Mettur dam opened only for Drinking water purpose (and Aadi perukku) . No farming been carried out by Tamil Nadu using Karnataka Water. Karnataka released around 33 TMC water (till August) instead of 94 TMC. In September, it released around 9 TMC instead of monthly quota of 40TMC. So please understand Tamil nadu is not robbing Karnataka. TN farmers have to start sowing before North east monsoon otherwise crops can’t withstand direct rain, so in this time very drop matter.
- Not all lands will do three crops in Tamil nadu, very very very very few does, that too with their private bore wells. This year Tamil Nadu (from June) didn’t release any water for agriculture. Getting two rice crop itself great harvest for farmers.
- Please understand desalination can’t be the only soultion for big state like Tamil nadu with the population of 7.7 cr (higher than France, Italy, UK, eight times that of Israel). even today, top Three biggest desalination plants in India are in Tamil Nadu, it is very very costly affair, to produce 100 MLD of water you need to spend around 700–800 Cr to just setup the plant and there is an operation cost also have to taken care. This will affect marine ecology by increasing the salinity of sea. Developing countries like India can’t afford.
- I didn’t write this to support Tamil Nadu, just want to give you the actual physical fact. To just to say my Karnataka friends, Tamil Nadu is not cynical about Karnataka people.
- Karnataka cauvery basin also has Multiple crops, like their counterparts in Tamil nadu been asked to have only single crop for last 2–3 years (on canal irrigation). You can’t sustain the family with single crop.Grow single crop this season, farmers told
- Both governments should avoid growing multiple water intensive crops instead they should choose one water intensive crop and another less water intensive crop like maize, Ragi, Pulses..etc as proposed by many export panels
For people from Tamil nadu- Karnataka has real requirement of cauvery due to industrialization, mighty agriculture district like mandya seeing farmer suicide. Bangalore which houses more than 20 Lakhs Tamils need water, Tamils also gets advantage of development of Bangalore, they form dominant minority in Bangalore. Development of Hosur/Krishnagiri district and Tamil nadu tourism is also depends on Bangalore (since Bangalore sends lot of Tourist to Tamil nadu) . Remember Bangalore is the city contains largest Tamil Population outside Tamil nadu. Co-operate, go for sustainable agricultural practices. Force your government to spend on water conservation. Ask water not Freebie (My dear statesman's we need to get our act together). Our priorities are misplaced.
This year Karnataka govt misled by IMD. June and July had normal rainfall. Karnataka govt opened water very freely for its purpose (without sharing much to TN), but August failed the state, They have standing crops which need water, since Bangalore has no alternative water source like Chennai, Bangalore will suffer. Karnataka is are really in a fix. people of Tamil nadu should understand if they have enough water normal kannadiga has no problem sharing water with TN.
Both the state people, p;ease Give an export a chance , don’t spread half baked truth. Force your government on sustainable water practices. save water as an individual, change your water intensive life style.Set an example. It is a technical issue don’t see it as Tamil and Kannada Issue. both needs water.. need collaborative action forum like Cauvery family initiative .
I am deeply hurt to see the two states whom I love the most fighting with each other.
Recent problem
It’s hurtful to hear many protester using swear word to demonize Tamil nadu during Cauvery bandh. This much enmity towards neighboring state with whom Karnataka shares significant cultural and linguistic ties is very Disturbing. This holds for Tamil nadu too.
Supreme Court judgement on 06-Sep-2016 to ask Karnataka to release 15000 Cusec of water is misinterpreted from both sides. Media which is supposed to be helping people to understand the problem joined the emotion. I had not seen any Kannada or Tamil news channel running a program with facts and interview of water resources export. Their programs are all occupied by fanatics and politicians from the both the sides, to fuel the emotion and hatred.
Karnataka statement which quotes only 51 TMC water from four dams (KRS, Kabini, Herangi and Hemavathi) is factually wrong. Karnataka govt didn’t give information about dams in small streams and numerous check dams in the Cauvery River which holds water from 0.1 TMC to 0.5 TMC, also present inflow in the Cauvery river and its tributary also not mentioned, these half facts fuelled the people to say Karnataka will lose 13 TMC water and its dam availability will reduce 25% of present level.
It is not good for Karnataka government to arrogantly announce “not even a drop of water available for Tamil nadu”. It led to the Supreme Court statement of Live and Let live, so Karnataka govt came down to release 10000 Cusec, but SC asked Karnataka to release 15000 cusec. I support the wording in the judgement which says consider Tamil Nadu requirements, so it can live as an “Entity”. As of now Karnataka dams has around 7000 cusec inflow (it was 10000 cusec yesterday), so Karnataka will release extra 8000 cusec from its dam, so for 10 days , its dam level will reduce from the tone of 3 TMC to 6 TMC not the 13 TMC. Just to portray the number three days before 220000 cusec was released from Almatti dam. Let us hope cool minds from both the side prevail, won’t be overshadowed by angry minds. Let the Cauvery joint family flourish.
It is sad that water sharing issues are being settled in Supreme court, which points out to the failure of us living together or sort our problem in a peaceful and fruitful way. We let the decision of lakh’s of farmers to two judges, unfortunately , it is better than two CM deciding the same (failure of Indian political system)
Now Mekedattu project which Karnataka government going to implement at the cost of Rs. 5912 Cr, As per the project, two 25 TMC dam (or one 50 TMC dam) to be constructed at Tamil nadu-Karnataka border to save 250 TMC of cauvery water (as per me , which doesn’t exist). Karnataka govt planned this for the purpose of hydro power and drinking water to Kolar, Tumkur and other district. So this Circus will continue for next five to ten years. It will be a death sentence for Tamil nadu delta districts, it will exponentially increase Karnataka's dependency of cauvery in irrigation, drinking water and power generation. This will motivate upper riparian state to build infrastructure around mekedattu dam, This new found use will again starve Tamil nadu, where cauvery flow may go below ecologically sustainable level (it’s already happening) leading to dead river basin in the lower riparian basin. Politicians from both the sides thinks cauvery has infinite amount of waters, building infrastructure around the cauvery killing the river ecology without mercy.
Burning Pictures are not of any enemy country leaders (even that i oppose), it is the elected representative of neighboring states
I just can’t express my sorrow of the Sep-12 incident. My beloved Bangalore was burning any vehicle with the identity of my origin state, normal Kannadiga and normal Tamilian don't want any violence, they have their own life to fight on. These protest are politically and economically motivated. Some vested elements in Karnataka who is not able to compete with some companies in Tamil nadu, using this protest to destroy their competitors. So neither scolding karnataka nor scolding Tamil nadu gonna help. They are just using you. Be vigilant, use your commonsense. So act decent. Monday protest in Bangalore was well organized with mob having all required facility ready, to instinct fear among people for their political, Survival and economical advantage. It is just to instinct fear among minority community to show them “Who is a In-charge in Bangalore”. Tamil channel news’s are equally disturbing, people taking their life, some anti-social elements are successful in converting the technical/ecological issue into Tamil and Kannada Issue. I am worried.
Desalination - Is it a Solution - Big No, But it can help in a certain extent (Note- All the calculations are done by me, based on available literature data)
Last one month, there has been sudden rise of facebook, twitter and whatsapp desalination experts. Let me give you a data related to desalination installation cost, environmental cost and operating cost.
(Minjur desalination plant-Chennai)
List of desalination plants in Tamil Nadu (these are the largest plants in India)
- Minjur Seawater Desalination Plant – 100 MLD (100000000 litres a day) in Chennai – 515Cr inaugurated at July 2010
- Nemmeli Seawater Desalination Plant – 100 MLD (100000000 litres a day) in Chennai -533Cr inaugurated at 2013
Project under consideration and Construction
- Nemmeli Seawater Desalination Plant– 150 MLD costing 1371 Cr in Chennai under German funding
- Perur Desalination Plant with the capacity of 400 MLD costing 4070 Cr near Chennai funded by JICA
- Two Project at Kuthiraivaimozhi and Alalnthalai in Ramanathapuram District with a combined capacity of 120 MLD costing 1947 Cr
Chennai City needs around 830 MLD per day ( less than Bangalore, which take 1300+ MLD per day). Around 150-180 MLD is supplied from two desalination plants (21 % of city requirement). This will increase multi fold in the coming years.
Installation cost and Operating cost required to desalinate the water
100 MLD (million Liter per day) is equal to 41 cu-secs (cuft/s) of water flow in a day
100 MLD desalination plant with 100% plant utilization, running continuously for 365 day will produce 1.3 TMC of water. Assuming 3 kWh of electricity required to produce 1000 Litres of water. This plant needs 109.5 million units of electricity, which cost around Rs.45 Cr electricity bill (still, we didn’t add other costs).
Minjur plant is setup by IVRCL ltd, it sells 1000 litres water for Rs.60 to industries and Rs.48 to Chennai water board. If Tamil nadu buying 192 TMC desalinated water, it have to pay 27000 cr to 32000 Cr, 20% of the state budget goes to buy just 192 TMC of water, prices are in the rising trend, still we are not talked about environmental problem.
Let’s relate the desalination figures to 192 TMC of water which Karnataka has to release for Tamil Nadu every year.
Karnataka has to release 6088 cusecs (cuft/s) of water 24*7 continuously for a year, for TN to get 192 TMC of water. Tamil Nadu has no river except Cauvery, with an average flow greater than 6000 cusecs.
Installation Cost
Best assumption – 100 % desalination plant utilization, Plant have to produce water equal to the average flow of 6088 cusecs (no peak water requirement), 365 day operation of the desalination plants.
Cost to produce 192 TMC of desalinated water
- 192 TMC of water needs a desalination plant with the capacity of 14.9 BLD (Billion litres per day plant). The biggest desalination plant in the world- Ras Al-Khair in Saudi has a capacity of 1.025 BLD.
- It requires 38 units of 400 MLD desalination plant.
- Very minimum, it requires Installation cost of Rs. 1.6 lakhs Cr (assuming latest Perur plant cost of Rs.4070 for 400 MLD plant).
- Desalination plant requires minimum of 16.32 Billion kWh of electricity
- Tamil nadu have to spend 6600 Cr for electricity consumption every year. So desalination plants need 2000 MW power plant, Tamil Nadu have to spend 15% of its electricity to produce 192 TMC of water.
Other operation cost and environmental cost is sufficient to bankrupt Tamil Nadu (just for 192 TMC of water). The above figure consider very minimum cost, actual cost may be vary up-to 200% of minimum cost.
Environmental factor
Normal desalination plant need intake of minimum two times the water output, to generate 1 litre of fresh water, it needs minimum 2 litre of sea water. Desalination plant releases brine (solution of salt in water) to the sea, which is denser than normal sea water, so it will settle in the sea bottom destroying underwater eco system. Tamil Nadu, Mannar Marine Park has one of the best sea diversity and coral reeves in the country. It also affects fishing, since fishes may able to survive in the high saline water. Ecological cost can’t be numbered in rupees.
I hope the above points will makes you feel the importance of the rain water and ecology. We need better water conservation system and population control measures to solve the water problem.
The Other Solutions
Many people asked me , how to solve this problem. If you read above paragraph, you will know by yourself. For the real solution , the problem have to be decoupled into two separate issues .
- Cauvery Water Sharing
- Solving the water crisis in Karnataka and Tamil nadu.
Cauvery Water Sharing
This problem already been solved by Cauvery water tribunal award at 2007. Tribunal spend almost 17 years , analyzing all the ground facts, consulting people from both the states, including Prime Ministers, Chief ministers, farmers and various experts. Even reputed lawyer Fali Nariman (who represent Karnataka in cauvery dispute) consent to the court that Tribunal award is neutral and binding to all the states. Now central government have to setup the independent authority to implement the award given by the Tribunal (central government have to think beyond politics). Most of the neutral experts accept the tribunal award, even Tamil nadu knows, it can’t get more than this (TN share reduced from 487 TMC to 419 TMC). Karnataka knows, it can’t ask for more than 270 TMC (its share significantly improved from 1991 number). Cauvery Management board, an independent authority if set up, will work only based on tribunal award, without worrying about Karnataka or Tamil nadu requirements (you get what is given in the BOOK (tribunal award),nothing more, nothing less). No politician can over-ride their authority. So cauvery problem already been solved.
Alarming Situation
There was a rumour that Karnataka has 90% deficit monsoon (actually it is 90% of the area recieved defiicit monsson). As per IMD there is 17% deficit monsoon in Karnataka in Cauvery basin. It is not considered Drought year, even with just 17% (22% highest estimate-other sources) monsoon deficit, Tamil Nadu got just over 45 TMC water, as of now four dams of Karnataka has only 40 TMC , situation in both the states are alarming. What is happening, how state governments are managing the waters..???. Now Bangalore water requirement increased to 30TMC, in the future every year will be protest year. What happen if 30–35% deficit monsoon.. I think we will kill each other. Future is looking very dangerous.Cauvery unrest: Experts blame monsoon deficit, unsustainable cropping pattern
Solving water crisis.
Karnataka and Tamil nadu government have to solve this problem by themselves with the help of local population. Many solution been discussed by many experts. Customized solution can be found for every sub region. The most commonsense solutions are - Ground water recharge, Road side water management, linking peninsular river (Mahanadhi-Godavari-Krishna-
People should force their politicians for effective water management. This should be the poll issue (not caste, religion, language, fanaticism) in your state elections. I saw many intellectuals losing assembly election without proper party domination. Karnataka and Tamil nadu occupy top 5 slots in corruption in the country, Karnataka has one of the richest assembly members, 200 out of 224 MLA in Karnataka are crorepathi’s. Average officially declared asset of a Karnataka MLA is Rs. 23 Cr, situation is same in Tamil nadu (which occupy respectable first position in electoral corruption, even Indian election commission shocked by the extent of electoral corruption in the TN state). Do you expect these politicians( who got elected because of their money wealth) to solve your problem. This is the responsibility of all the people and government from both the states, you can’t force all these responsibility on poor people and farmers living in the cauvery basin. Bangalore water responsibility should not be in the hands of farmers in the cauvery basin, Responsibility should lie on the hands of Bangalorean’s and their local government, which failed to find multiple water sources and polluted all the lakes.
End of the day, People get what they deserve, as of now, we Indian’s don’t deserve better governance.
Everyone talks about Tamil Nadu right or Karnataka Rights on Cauvery , but no ones bother about, right of the river to flow, right of the all ecosystem to continue live along the breath of the river. Ecuador and New Zealand has their law puts right of River (like human) to exist. River has right to Exist without go dry across its breath to maintain its ecological balance. Tamil nadu and Karnataka will fight for Cauvery, and the river will see the slow death due to its over exploitation.
So we have already solution to the cauvery problem, but we don’t have or we don’t want to have solution to the water scarcity and management.
My final world, If Tamil Nadu is in the position of Karnataka, it would do what Karnataka govt did. Same way if Karnataka govt was in Tamil Nadu position, then Karnataka would have acted same way how Tamil nadu acted. The two states are simultaneously both correct and wrong, cauvery river is the only loser, whom no one cares, they just try to loot her, forget her health and life.
People link the cauvery water sharing issue with the water scarcity issue, which sets the stage for Fanatics, Chauvinist, Jingoist , politicians and idiots to dance around and Fool around.,
When I get time, I will expand the answer. Sorry for the typo didn’t get time to proof read
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