No out of court settlement or compromise in fight to protect mother Mhadei.
This statement, if it had not been retracted and a fresh one issued, stating that the state would stand firm and that there would be no compromise on the Mhadei issue, would have played into the hands of Maharashtra and specially Karnataka, which has completely been put on the back foot, at the National Water Disputes Tribunal.
The State government has earlier rejected Karnataka’s proposal to have an out of court settlement of Mhadei river water dispute.
He wrote “The adjudication and award of the tribunal can be expedited if the contesting states cooperate with the proceedings and do not hamper regular hearings by filing interlocutory applications.” Karnataka’s stand has been that the farmers of Dharwad, Belagavi districts in North Karnataka have been agitating for months seeking water from the Mhadei river.
In Goa, the river Mhadei covers 1580 sq kms of the catchment area of Mhadei basin while in Karnataka it covers merely 375 sq kms.
There are also another 76 sq kms of catchment area in Maharashtra.
Karnataka, wants to divert 7.56tmc feet of water by constructing nearly six dams, including the Kalasa-Bhandura canal, to meet the drinking water needs of Hubli-Dharwad cities.
The construction of a canal to divert the Kalasa tributary from an eco-sensitive zone to Malaprabha basin is pending before the Tribunal since 2010.
Goa has strongly objected to all the diversion of Mhadei river waters, including the diversions of the Khandepar river.
The Khandepar river is a lifeline of the State as the water treatment plant is on the river at Opa, which supplies drinking water to Tiswadi and Ponda taluka and provides irrigational needs of around 10,000 hectares Goa has also raised environmental and wildlife damages on account of the planned damming and diversion of the tributaries of the Mhadei.