Mahadayi Water sharing Dispute

Mahadayi Water sharing Dispute

News: Karnataka’s decision to go ahead with a water diversion project on river Mahadayi has escalated its long standing dispute on the issue with neighbouring Goa. 

What is the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project, and why the dispute?
• The Kalasa Banduri Nala project aims to divert water from Mahadayi to satisfy the drinking water needs of Belagavi, Dharwad, Bagalkot and Gadag districts.
• Though the project was first proposed in the early 1980s, it has remained on paper owing to a dispute between Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra. As per plans, barrages are to be built against Kalasa and Banduri streams — tributaries of Mahadayi — and water diverted towards Karnataka’s parched districts. 
• In 2002, the Karnataka government decided to implement the project, after the Centre cleared it. Goa, under its then CM Manohar Parrikar, approached the Centre, urging it to assess the available resources in the river and allocate water to the three basin states — Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
• Due to the protests in Goa and also due to concerns over ecological damage, the project was put on hold by the then NDA government. The dispute gained steam in 2006, when the JD(S)-BJP coalition government in Karnataka decided to start work on the project. Goa then approached the Supreme Court, seeking the creation of a Tribunal to settle the water sharing dispute. 
• A Tribunal was finally set up by the UPA government in November 2010. 

What did the Tribunal say?
• The Tribunal in 2018 awarded 13.42 TMC water from Mahadayi river basin to Karnataka, 1.33 TMC to Maharashtra and 24 TMC to Goa. In Karnataka’s share, 5.5 TMC was to meet drinking water needs and 8.02 TMC was for hydro-electricity generation. 
• However, after the Tribunal award, Goa filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court in July 2019, challenging the quantum of allocation. Subsequently, in October 2020, it filed a contempt petition before the SC, accusing Karnataka of illegally diverting water from the Mahadayi basin.
• The project has been a long-standing demand of Karnataka residents set to benefit from it. With Assembly elections due this year, the state government, despite the petitions pending in the SC, has decided to go ahead with the project, after securing a go-ahead from the Central Water Commission (CWC). A clearance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) is still awaited.

What should we know from Prelims perspective?
• Mahadayi originates inside the Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary in the Belagavi district of Karnataka and flows into the Arabian Sea in Goa.
• Article 262 of the Constitution provides for the adjudication of inter-state water disputes. It makes 2 provisions:
o Parliament may by law provide for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint with respect to the use, distribution and control of waters of any inter-state river and river valley.
o Parliament may also provide that neither the Supreme court nor any other court is to exercise jurisdiction in respect of any such dispute or complaint. 
o Under this provision the parliament has enacted two laws - the River Boards Act (1956) and the Inter-State Water Disputes Act (1956).