The Goan has stumbled upon a betrayal of the highest order.During a visit to survey areas at the Mhadei dam site on a tip off, it foundthat the Karnataka Government has restarted work on the last 1 kilometrestretch of the controversial Kalasa-Banduri Canal project. The project envisagesdiverting 7.6 of Mhadei’s 200 million cubic feet water from its natural flowinto Goa into the opposite direction in Karnataka by Kalasa Canal nearKankumbi, besides building the Banduri Canal near Khanapur.
And Goa doesn’t seem to be aware of this. The Goan travelledto ground zero and found out that Goa Government’s public posturing, that thereis no reason for urgency, is anything but naïve. The Karnataka Government has quietlyconstructed a subterranean water channel that lies anywhere between 75 to 200metres below the surface. The channel length underground is roughly 3.5 kms inlength and not visible either to satellites or the naked eye. “Only a onekilometer long over-ground stretch of canal has to be constructed,” confirms CPatil, Supervising Engineer, DMC Constructions at Kankumbi. DMC is theengineering company that is handling the Rs. 200 crore project for KarnatakaNeeravari Nigam Ltd, the Karnataka Government agency handling the project. Thisshocking revelations come on the background of growing unrest within the state,as Water Resources Minister Dayanand Mandrekar and North Goa MP Sripad Naik areset to lead a delegation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, requesting him torestrain Karnataka from diverting Mhadei water away from Mandovi.
Karnataka had assured Goa last month that it won’t bediverting the waters till the next hearing in March 2013 at Mhadei WaterDispute Tribunal.
“Even in the dry months such as now, the seepage of water inthe project site is so much that we are using four 25 BHP pumps and those tooare not enough to pump water out of the site”, explains Patil.
The project envisages diverting water from Kalasa, Banduri, Halatar,Chorla, Potla, Korla and Gurki streams from Mhadei (Mandovi) to Malaprabhariver and provide irrigation and supply of drinking water to Savadatti,Ramadurg talukas of Belgaum district, Navalgund in Dharwad district, Ron andNaragund in Gadag district and Badami in Bagalkot district
The diversion will aim to solve the drinking water problem inDharwad-Hubli region.
By Patil’s admission enough just one project site has over146 crore litres of water being diverted per annum. The project has over adozen of such sites where hundreds of perennial springs gush millions of litresof water into the Mhadei, uninterrupted.
Karnataka is not only diverting the water from Mhadei toMalprabha thus reversing the river’s flow, but also building a dam almost 600metres above sea level that will completely shut off half a dozen streams awayfrom Mandovi.
“We have not started the work on the dam near Tilkwadi as thesame awaits the Ministry of Environment and Forest’s permission” explains K BKrishnaji Rao, Executive Engineer, Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd.
Rao also pointed out that the Kalasa canal came up only on ‘private,non-forest’ land so no permissions were required. The dam at Tilkwadi onKarnataka-Goa border will begin soon after MoEF’s clearance comes.
With just one project site diverting 5% of Mhadei waters awayfrom its streams, the intention of Karnataka to even honour its stand in theTribunal is suspect. However, the clever manner in which only private landswere used in the heart of Kankumbi forest to build the diversion channel pointsout to a more sinister future for Goa.
