https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/mhadei-dispute-crisis-goa-scales-up-challenges-cm-sawant-puts-bjp-tight-spot-karnataka-2321481-2023-01-14
The Central Water Commission’s December end approval of Karnataka's
Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the contentious Kalasa-Bandura water
diversion project,
has sent the BJP government in neighbouring Goa, scurrying for cover. The
project’s plans to divert the Mhadei/Mandovi river system waters into the
Malaprabha reservoir is a huge emotive red flag in Goa.
In the past fortnight, the Goa opposition has successfully managed to
expose and gut the BJP government’s failure to protect the state, and stand
up to its central leadership. In the initial shock, there were calls for
all forty MLAs and the chief minister to resign to underscore Goa’s strong
sentiments. BJP Union Minister of State and Goa MP, Sripad Naik, offered to
resign, but has fallen silent.
Since the Mahadayi Interstate Water Disputes Tribunal’s August 2018 award,
granting Karnataka 13.42 thousand million cubic feet (380,012.127 million
litres) for its projects, it has fast-tracked DPRs [including to divert
3.9 tmc (110,435.715 million litres) to the Malaprabha basin]. Now, as the
BJP woos the poll-bound state, the election climate is proving beneficial
for approvals.
Mhadei as Goa Lifeline -- 'Apocalypse Now' Moment?
While to the rest of India, it may be viewed as just another knotty
inter-state water dispute --- in Goa, the Mhadei/Mandovi is considered a
lifeline of the state. Every chief minister, including incumbent, Pramod
Sawant, has sworn to protect every last drop of the mother river Mhadei.
What is it about the river that gets citizens of this state uber riled up?
That any thought of its fresh water being diverted, is viewed as an
`Apocalypse Now' moment? Geography has much to do with it.
The Mhadei/Mandovi river basin spans 1580 sq km, nearly half the small
state's total 3702 sq km area, that is 43 % of the state's area. It runs 76
km in North Goa, 78% of the Mhadei's total 111 km. It passes through 194
(Goa has a total of 334 villages) of its most populous villages and towns,
including capital Panjim. In six of the state's twelve sub districts ---
the Mhadei/Mandovi is critical for the region's water supply, agriculture,
fishing, irrigation, navigation and tourism. Religious, cultural and daily
practices are woven around the river.
Nirmala Sawant, President activist of Mhadei Bachao Andolan (MBA) in Goa,
also a multi-term former Congress state President and former minister,
reflects the public angst.
"Goa has been treated with great injustice by the centre, simply because we
are small, and have just 3 Parliamentary seats, compared to 28. But should
it be a number's game? Goa has just two major rivers, Mandovi and Zuari.
Karnataka has twenty rivers. The Mhadei/Mandovi basin covers 43% of Goa,
while it covers just 0.19 % of Karnataka. Yes, it originates in Karnataka's
Jamboti Ghats of the Sahyadri Western Ghats range, but that is just 35 km
from Goa's border. To then divert the westward flow of the river and
reverse its natural flow eastwards and away from Goa and into another river
basin, is completely against the principles of natural justice", she told
this writer.
Most of Goa's rivers are salty sea water. In the Mhadei/Mandovi's case,
salt water ingress from the Arabian Sea reaches 69% of its upstream length
in Goa --- making the remaining upper, flowing, fresh water reaches of the
river all the more critical. Within the state, there is an intrinsic
awareness that alterations or diversions of the Mhadei's freshwater flows,
will adversely impact the state. Especially the biodiversity hotspot areas
of the thickly forested Western Ghats sub districts on the East. Here, the
Mhadei runs through and sustains three wildlife sanctuaries and one
national park --- the Bhagwan Mahavir WildLife Sanctuary and Mollem
National Park, Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary, Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, and
Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary. For this reason, Goa has argued that the outcome
of the Mhadei river diversion should concern not just Goa, but is of
national, if not, global importance.
Background to an Interstate Dispute -- the Goa Perspective
Goa has steadfastly opposed any diversion of Mhadei's waters outside its
basin, 78% of which is in Goa, 18% in Karnataka and 4% in Maharashtra .
But over the past two decades, it has found itself bullied and backed into
a corner.
Proposals to harness the monsoonal flows of the rain-fed Mhadei, first came
up in the seventies and eighties, when the upper riparian state of
Karnataka sought to generate hydropower from the Mhadei waters.These got a
pushback from the Union government when Goa was a union territory and later
by Congress governments.
In the nineties, Karnataka articulated proposals for a series of dams on
Mhadei's feeder streams, which sent alarm bells ringing in the small state.
Strategically, Karnataka managed to change the perception war
