From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Oct 7: On a day the Supreme Court appointed high-level technical team headed by Central Water Commission (CWC) Chairman G S Jha embarked on the two-day tour of the Cauvery basin areas of Karnataka for a study of the ground realities, State’s Water Resources Minister M B Patil told the team that Karnataka might end up with a shortfall of at least 20 tmcft of water due to monsoon failure.

Patil, who made a detailed presentation of distress situation in the Cauvery basin in Karnataka to the Central team in Vidhana Soudha on Friday, said the State is expected to fall short of 20 tmcft of water this year.

He made the presentation before the High Level Technical team led by G S Jha set off on its field visits in the basin area on Friday.

The team was constituted by the Supreme Court to assess the ground realities of the Cauvery basin in two states.

“We (Karnataka) are not in a position to release any more water from our reservoirs owing to failure of the South-West monsoon this year,’’ the minister told the team.

He said compared to the plight of the people and farmers in the State’s basin areas, the neighbouring Tamil Nadu was placed in a better position in view of the probable normal North-east monsoon, which has already commenced.

Explaining the extremely difficult position faced by the State, he said farmers have been facing a great hardship as they were able to go for sowing only on 6.15 lakh acres and the standing crops on 1.88 lakh acres withered due to shortage of water.

An estimated water requirement for drinking water and irrigation purposes till May 2017, is about 67.18 tmcft.

The minister feared that with the present storage of only about 32.05 tmcft of water and the expected inflow of another 15.17 tmcft, Karnataka may fell short of about 20 tmcft of water this year.

The total requirement of drinking for towns, villages, cities, including Bengaluru and Mysuru till May next year was about 23.05 tmcft of water, Patil said and pleaded with the team to take into account of the rainfall of the north-east monsoon in Tamil Nadu,  before working out the distress formula to be shared by all the riparian states.

The minister also appealed to the team to assess the ground reality during the visit to the Cauvery basin in the Karnataka region.

A 30-page memorandum was submitted to Jha highlighting the poor rain fall situation, damaged crops situation and drinking water need for towns, cities and villages in the Cauvery region in Karnataka.

Responding to the plea, Jha said he would ensure a fair assessment of the situation and try to strike a balance on the water requirement of the States.

The team includes representatives from Kerala, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, who are touring with the central technical team.

Karnataka’s Chief Secretary Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Water Resources Department Principal Secretary Rakesh Singh and Agriculture Department Principal Secretary Maheshwar Rao were present among on the occasion.

The team will tour Tamil Nadu basin areas on Saturday.