PANAJI
The Centre has notified PRAWAH, the water management authority for the Mhadei river over which a decades-long dispute between Goa and Karnataka and the third riparian State of Maharashtra was partly adjudicated by a Tribunal with a water sharing award in 2018.
Goa's capital Panaji has been chosen as PRAWAH's headquarters, seen as a mini-triumph of sorts for Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who has been under constant criticism ever since a detailed project report (DPR) by Karnataka to dam and divert the river's water at Kalasa-Bhandura got the Centre's nod late last year.
The notification was issued on Monday (May 22), more than three months after the Union cabinet's decision to set it up was announced by Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendranath Shekhawat but made public only on Saturday.
PRAWAH an acronym for (Progressive River Authority for Welfare and Harmony) will be responsible to give effect to the August 14, 2018 award of the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal.
Its other functions would be to aid in building "mutual trust" and understanding among Mhadei dispute's party States -- Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra -- according to Shekawat's original announcement of the authority.
Meanwhile, as per the notification, 'Mahadayi Water Management Scheme 2023' has been framed, which encompasses PRAWAH to be headquartered in Panaji and headed by a Chairperson (full-time independent) picked from among serving officers -- an engineer from the Central Water Engineering Service (CWES) cadre of the level of Higher Administrative Grade (HAG) or a Member, Central Water Commission (CWC).
The chairperson of PRAWAH itself will have a term not exceeding three years.
The politically and emotionally sensitive Mhadei dispute has been raging in Goa ever since the Central Water Commission gave its nod in December last year to Karnataka's DPR for constructing dams at Khalasa and Bhandura to divert the quantum of water allocated to the State for diversion by the Mahadayi Tribunal.
The tribunal's award, however, is under challenge by Goa and also by Karnataka and Maharashtra before the Supreme Court of India which has till date refrained from passing any interim orders.
Opposition parties and large sections of civil society in Goa have been taking to the streets taking potshots at the ruling BJP over the seemingly pro-Karnataka stance of the Centre. With Karnataka going to the polls recently, the issue got even more attention in the State.
Mhadei originates in Karnataka and traverses over 75 per-cent of its course from East to West of Goa before flowing into the Arabian Sea at Miramar-Panaji. It also briefly flows through Maharashtra.
Karnataka is planning to divert the allotted 3-odd TMC of water with dams at Kalasa and Bhandura to the water-deficit Malaprabha basin while Goa has objected to out of basin diversion.
