Krishna River Water Disputes

Krishna River & Krishna Waters Disputes Tribunal

The Krishna River is the second biggest river in peninsular India. It originates near Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra from the statue of a cow in a temple. It then runs for a distance of 303 km in Maharashtra, 480 km through the breadth of North Karnataka and the rest of its 1300 km journey in Andhra Pradesh before it empties into the Bay of Bengal.

The river basin is 257,000 km², and the States of Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh contributes 68,800 km² (26.8%), 1,12,600 sq.k.m. (43.8%) and 75,600 km² (29.4%) respectively.

Due to the inter state nature of the river and the multiple parties concerned, disputes arose between the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh over sharing of the waters. The Government of India constituted the Krishna Waters Disputes Tribunal in 1969 under the Inter State Water Disputes Act of 1956. This was headed by R. S Bachawat a former judge of the Supreme Court.

The Bachawat commission went over the matter in detail and gave its final award in 1973. While the Tribunal had in its earlier report detailed two schemes, Scheme A and Scheme B, the final award only included Scheme A and Scheme B was left out. Scheme A pertained to the division of the available waters based on 75% dependability, while Scheme B recommended ways to share the surplus waters.

The KWDT in its award outlined the exact share of each state. The award contended based on 75% dependability that the total quantum of water available for distribution was 2060TMC. This was divided between the three states in the following manner :

Maharashtra 560 TMC

Karnataka 700 TMC

Andhra Pradesh 800 TMC

The tribunal also made it clear that in case any one of the states were not to co-operate in sharing surplus water in the above ratio, Parliament should take a decision to distribute the surplus water through an enactment.

However, Scheme B involved the constitution of an authority(Krishna River Valley Authority) to ensure the implementation of the scheme. The constitution of such an authority, though, was outside the powers of the tribunal under the Inter State Water Disputes Act of 1956. As a result, Scheme B was left out of the Tribunal’s final award and Scheme A alone was presented to the government for final notification in the Gazzette.

Therefore, for the time being, Andhra Pradesh has been given permission to make use of any surplus waters though it cannot claim any rights over the same.

Review of the Award

The KWDT provided for a review of its award after 31 May, 2000. However no such review was taken up for more than 3 years after that.

In 2004, the second KWDT, KWDT-II was constituted by the Govt of India following requests by all three states.

TRIBUNAL'S DIRECTION

The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Brijesh Kumar, permitted Karnataka to raise the storage level in the Almatti dam to 524.256 metres from 519.6 metres, a measure seen by Andhra Pradesh as depriving its lower Krishna delta region of water supply.

The tribunal asked the Centre to set up a `Krishna Water Decision-Implementation Board' with representation from all the three States.

The tribunal directed the three States to contribute for Chennai city drinking water supply 3.30 tmcft distributed in equal quantity in July, August, September and October, and 1.70 tmcft in four equal instalments in January, February, March and April.

In its order, announced in an open court, the tribunal allocated a total share of 1,001 tmcft to Andhra Pradesh, 911 tmcft to Karnataka and 666 tmcft to Maharashtra with certain restrictions imposed on each State in keeping with the dependable flows of the rivers on which the allocations have been made.

KWDT-II freshly assessed the yearly yields in the Krishna and determined the award on the basis of the yearly yield at 65 per cent dependability which was assessed at a total of 2,293 tmcft.

The total allocation under the award includes the allocations made by KWDT-I at 75 per cent dependable yields plus return flows assessed at 2,130 tmcft. The allocation under the first award was 734 tmcft for Karnataka, 585 tmcft for Maharashtra and 811 tmcft for Andhra Pradesh.

Since the decision of the tribunal has the force and decree of the Supreme Court, no appeal against the award can be filed in any court except before the tribunal itself. The order of the tribunal can be reviewed or revised after May 31, 2050.

Krishna River

The Krishna River is one of the longest rivers in central-southern India, about 1,300 kilometres. It rises at Mahabaleswar in Maharashtra in the west and meets the Bay of Bengal at Hamasaladeevi in Andhra Pradesh, on the east coast. It also flows through the state of Karnataka.

Sangli is the largest city on the river Krishna in Maharashtra state while Vijayawada is the largest city on the River Krishna.

Ecologically, this is one of the disastrous rivers in the world, in that it causes heavy soil erosion during the monsoon season. It flows fast and furious, often reaching depths of over 75 feet.

Its most important tributary is the Tungabhadra River, which is formed by the Tunga River and Bhadra River that originate in the Western Ghats. Other tributaries include the Venna River, Koyna River, Bhima River (and its tributaries such as the Kundali River feeding into the Upper Bhima River Basin), Malaprabha River, Ghataprabha River, Yerla River, Warna River, Dindi River, Paleru River, Musi River and Dudhganga River.

The rivers Venna, Koyna, Vasna, Panchganga, Dudhganga, Ghataprabha, Malaprabha and Tungabhadra join Krishna from the right bank; while the Yerla River, Musi River, Maneru and Bhima rivers join the Krishna from the left bank.

Sangameswaram temple is now drowned in the Srisailam reservoir and visible for devotees only during summer when the reservoir's water level comes down.

There are many dams constructed across the Krishna river.

* Basava Sagar Dam

* Almatti Dam

* Srisailam Dam

* Nagarjuna Sagar Dam

* Prakasham Barrage

* Jurala Dam

* Dhom Dam

* Narayanpur Dam downstream of Almatti Dam

* Amar Dam

* Pulichitnthala Dam is under construction.

Almatti Dam

The Almatti Dam is a dam project on the Krishna River in North Karnataka, India. It was completed in July 2005.

Almatti dam is the main reservoir of the Upper Krishna project, an irrigation project. The 290 MW power project is located on the right toe of Almatti Dam. The project, when allotted for private initiative was estimated to cost Rs.1470 crores. Subsequently, KPCL took up the project at an estimated cost of Rs.674 crores and completed the project at a cost of Rs.520 crores in a period of 40 months by July 2005.

Upper Krishna Project

The Upper Krishna Project, across the river Krishna, provides for irrigation to the drought prone areas of Bijapur, Bagalkote, Gulbarga, Raichur and Koppal Districts.

This project has been taken up in stages, as detailed below:

STAGE-1

The I-Stage, of the Project comprises of the following:-

a) Dam across the river Krishna, near Almatti village in Bagewadi taluk of Bijapur district for providing irrigation to an extent of 0.16 lakh ha. and

b) Another dam across the river Krishna, at Narayanapur (downstream of Almatti Dam).

STAGE – II

The II-Stage of the project envisages the raising of FRL of Almatti Dam to 524.26 M (1720 ft) to utilise further quantum of 1907 Mcum (54 TMC) for providing irrigation to an additional extent of 1.972 lakh ha.

WORLD BANK ASSISTANCE

The first phase of the project has been implemented, with World Bank Assistance to the tune of $ 117.65 million (U.S) and the credit is fully utilised.

The second phase of the project, estimated to cost Rs. 1552.30 Crores was taken up with the financial assistance from the World Bank during 1988 and the assistance extended by the Bank is 160 million dollars (U.S) in the form of credit and 165 million dollars (U.S) in the form of loan. The loan was reduced from 165million US dollar to 45 million US dollars, due to appreciation of dollar value. World Bank Assistance was closed during 1997 and balance works have been completed out of State funds.