40. Cauvery River Dispute PDF

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MAINS 2016 CURRENT AFFAIRSGENERAL STUDIES - 240. CAUVERY WATER DISPUTEWater is a critical resource which will determine India's ability to achieve rapid economic growth, improve the quality of life of its people and ensure environmental sustainability. Water is a critical issue in India’s federal po...

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MAINS 2016 CURRENT AFFAIRS GENERAL STUDIES - 2

40. CAUVERY WATER DISPUTE

11/11/16

Water is a critical resource which will determine India's ability to achieve rapid economic growth, improve the quality of life of its people and ensure environmental sustainability. Water is a critical issue in India’s federal politics. India accounts for about 17% of the world's population but has only 4% of the world's fresh water resources. At present, irrigation consumes about 84% of India's total available water with industrial and domestic sectors consuming a mere 12% and 4% respectively. India continues to use two to four times more water to produce one unit of major food crop when compared to Brazil, China and the US. Ground water today accounts for a whopping 62.4% of net irrigation needs, 85% of rural drinking water needs and 50% of urban water needs. This over dependence on ground water has resulted in a radical decline of the ground water table. This point out that India is facing problems related with amount of water (both surface and ground water). India is already a water stressed country and rapidly moving towards becoming water scarce. Climate change and the resulting monsoonal variations accelerate the problem with reduced intensity of rainfall. Water shortage poses an economic, environmental and security threat to India, which calls for sustainable use of water. Water stress has resulted in inter-State water disputes like Karnataka-Goa conflict over Mahadayi River, Odisha-Chhattisgarh dispute over sharing of the Mahanadi waters and the Cauvery crisis. The ongoing Cauvery water-sharing row between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has sparked violent protests in both the states. The violence-marred water feud between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu illustrates how water stress is fuelling bitter discord between states over sharing the most vital of all natural resources.

CAUVERY RIVER Cauvery is an 800-km sacred river of southern India, which originates on Brahmagiri Hill in the Western Ghats in Coorg district of in Karnataka, flowing in a south-easterly direction through Tamil Nadu and exits into the Bay of Bengal. Its catchment area is in Kerala and Puducherry also. All four states lay claim to its waters. Karnataka, being the state from which the water flows out, is held responsible to release adequate water to other three states. The Cauvery is not a perennial river. With the monsoon failing more often than not, the flow in the river has been dwindling over the years even as the drinking water demands of a thirsty Bengaluru and the irrigation requirements of parched fields in both states are rising alarmingly. In a regular monsoon year, the water just flows down to all the others and there is no dispute. In rain-deficit years, the water has to be shared. In such a scenario, sharing the river water is bound to become increasingly contentious. The only way out is to follow court orders and tribunal awards while managing available water within states better. According to the Central Water Commissions data, reservoirs in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are short of water by 30 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively. Water levels of the main reservoirs in the Cauvery catchment area of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are 46 per cent below the 10-year average and almost 30 per cent less than the levels in 2015. The wells that replenish farms across the basin are running dry.

THE CAUVERY WATER DISPUTE With the Southwest monsoon falling short this season, the story of any other monsoon-deficient year is being repeated: Tamil Nadu rushing to the Supreme Court citing the crisis faced by its farmers, the court ordering release of some water, and protests erupted in Karnataka. TN approached SC for 50 Tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water for its samba crop (Paddy), cultivated from August to January. As per the tribunal order, Karnataka has to release 10 Tmcft in NEO IAS 0484-4030104, 9446331522, 9446334122 www.neoias.com | www.youtube.com/c/NEOIAS-ECLASS | www.facebook.com/neoias

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June, 34 in July, 50 in August and 40 in September, but had released only 33 Tmcft from June. Karnataka pointed to deficit rainfall leading to a deficit of 48% in inflows to the reservoirs. This resulted in Tamil Nadu approaching SC and court ordering for releasing water. Cauvery is an inter-State dispute, but this is no reason to turn the issue into a raging controversy that draws the peoples of the two States into confrontation. The Cauvery water dispute is turning out to be less about water and irrigation and more about linguistic chauvinism and regional identity.

HISTORY The dispute is 125 years old. Till 1990, the issues were sorted through earlier agreements and talks between the states. As per the very important 1924 agreement between the princely state of Mysore (Karnataka) and Madras presidency (now Tamil Nadu) for the construction of the Krishnarajasagara dam, Mysore was supposed to regulate the discharge of the river through and from the KRS reservoir, strictly in accordance with the ‘Rules of Regulation’, annexed to the Agreement. In 1990, the VP Singh government set up the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT), which gave a strongly disputed interim order in 1991. In 2007, after exhaustive discussions, the tribunal gave a final order allocating 419 Tmcft to TN, 270 Tmcft to Karnataka, 30 Tmcft to Kerala and 7 Tmcft to Puducherry., on the premise of 740 Tmcft at 50% dependability in the Cauvery. A Tmcft is equal to water released at the rate of 11,000 cusecs for a day or 2,831.7 crore litres of water. However Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal has asked the parties to share the deficiency on a pro rata basis, a major problem in implementing this aspect is the absence of a Cauvery Management Board and a Regulatory Authority, which the Tribunal had wanted created to oversee implementation. Instead, after notifying the final award in 2013, the Union government set up a Supervisory Committee comprising officials from the Union government and the Central Water Commission and representatives of both States.

PRESENT SCENARIO Karnataka had proposed a release of 10,000 cusecs for six days even when the Karnataka farmers are themselves in distress owing to deficit rainfall, but the Supreme Court had increased it to 15,000 cusecs of water for 10 days from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu (which would amount to about 39 thousand million cubic feet a month). The Supreme Court’s initial decree and its subsequent revision only ended up stoking more violence. According to the revised order, the court directed Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu every day till, the next date of hearing. The court has divided the amount of water received on a pro-rata basis. Even after Karnataka said they have a 47 per cent shortage in flows, they divided that distress equally among all the states, rather than see it as drinking water requirement for Bengaluru, Mysuru and other areas or crop needs. The court wanted to go purely by the division of water made by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. The apex court has passed only an interim order, similar to the ones issued in the earlier watershort years of 1995, 2002 and 2012, leaving the matter to be finally settled by the Cauvery Supervisory Committee (CSC), which is the standing body to arbitrate on this issue. Far from making timely interventions, this committee has failed to anticipate the standoff despite sub-normal rainfall in the Cauvery catchment area for the third year in a row. Regrettably, the committee could not come up with a solution, even a provisional one. But even as the Karnataka government accepts the apex court directive, farmers and other social groups in the state are protesting this decision in a big way. The protesters have called for bandhs and also choked traffic on the busy Bengaluru-Mysuru highway. It is clear that there is insufficient water in Karnataka’s reservoirs to meet the full irrigation needs of both States. The point of the NEO IAS 0484-4030104, 9446331522, 9446334122 www.neoias.com | www.youtube.com/c/NEOIAS-ECLASS | www.facebook.com/neoias

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Supreme Court order was to make the States share their distress and not to magically fulfil the needs of farmers on both sides. But political parties and some media houses, especially regional language television channels, have sought to portray the issue as one that pits the people of one State against that of the other. The court has now asked Tamil Nadu to approach the CSC, which will decide on further releases. The CSC ordered Karnataka to release 3,000 cubic feet of water per second (cusecs) for the rest of the month. The decision was taken by the Committee after analysing the reports submitted by both the states. The supervisory committee took into consideration the interest of all the participating states, the inflow position, rain fall picture, daily inflow of water in the reservoirs of Karnataka, the drinking water needs of Karnataka and the need of samba crop in Tamil Nadu. It was also decided that the next meeting of the Committee will be held in October. The Committee will subsequently meet once in every month from February, 2017 onwards to take stock of the situation till the Cauvery Management Board comes into being. Meanwhile, the Central Water Commission (CWC) will draw up a new protocol of online collection of data related to rainfall and flow of water on real time basis which may be shared simultaneously with all the concerned states. The cost of developing this protocol will be shared by the three states - Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala - and UT of Puducherry. Bengaluru city saw a bandh and incidents of arson. Two people were killed. Assocham has put total losses at Rs 25,000 cr. Tamil Nadu also saw a band. Police in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have escorted vehicles to each other's borders to prevent violence. Interstate tensions in the south rose to high with an incident of firing, several of vehicle burning and ransacking of some Tamil Nadu-based outlets in Bengaluru and attacks on Karnataka Bank branches and Udupi hotels in Chennai, other parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, after the release of water. Bengaluru’s reputation of being a peaceful city to do business in has been dented by a prolonged disruption of normal activity, and an extraordinary outbreak of arson and unrest. Bengaluru-Mysuru highway which runs through Cauvery basin saw a total blockade of traffic. All traffic between Karnataka and TN also stopped. Bengaluru’s image as an ‘always on’ 24X7 technology hub has been dented, and Bengaluru-based IT companies have suffered heavy financial and reputational damage with their global clients. Which will impact make in India initiative. With the dispute over the sharing of Cauvery waters yet again boiling over into the streets of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, it is clear there are no systems in place to deal with situations of shortage. In this charged scenario, the Supreme Court too could have done better than merely reprimand Karnataka for being averse to releasing more water. It should, in fact, have allowed itself more time to assess the nuances of the situation, urging the Cauvery Monitoring Committee to maintain and furnish the relevant data on water use and flows from time to time. The court has done a significant service in nudging the Centre to provide a legal and technical framework for the equitable distribution of water. By directing the Centre to constitute a Cauvery Management Board within four weeks, the Supreme Court has created space for the water-sharing dispute to be handled in a scientific and responsible manner by a legally constituted technical body. The board, assisted by a regulation committee, is the mechanism prescribed by the Tribunal in its final order for implementing its award. It will be a technical body consisting of irrigation engineers and agronomists, and will have independent members as well as representatives of the basin States. It can formulate the manner in which water should be shared in a season of distress. The court’s intervention also exposes the helplessness of governments at the Centre in handling inter-State issues. This is not the first attempt to create an institutional mechanism. In 2013, the Centre notified the formation of a ‘Supervisory Committee’ consisting of the Secretary, Union Water Resources Ministry, as chairman, and the Chief Secretaries of the basin States as members. That the latest decision of the Supervisory Committee, which directed the release of 3,000 cusecs of water for 10 days to Tamil Nadu, did not find favour with either State shows the difficulties involved in NEO IAS 0484-4030104, 9446331522, 9446334122 www.neoias.com | www.youtube.com/c/NEOIAS-ECLASS | www.facebook.com/neoias

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managing inter-State disputes even through an institutional mechanism. The Supreme Court, too, has intervened to double the quantum of water to be released. All this shows that apart from permanent mechanisms, technical panels and seasonal adjudication, a spirit of accommodation is required among the basin States. Also needed is a clearer appreciation of the fact that the entire water yield in the Cauvery basin is not enough to provide for the requirements of both States.

CAUSES FOR THE CRISIS CHANGES IN AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES - SHIFT OF RAGI TO PADDY Widespread changes in farming and agricultural patterns exacerbate the problem of water stress. Once an area of traditional millet crop cultivation (require less water), the Cauvery basin has transformed into a location for the cultivation of high-yield paddy and sugar cane, both waterintensive crops. The Cauvery basin as a whole has witnessed a massive increase in agricultural area for paddy in the 1990s, as compared to the 1980s. This increase happened mostly in the Karnataka part of the basin (by almost 25 per cent), while the area in Tamil Nadu basin remained more or less the same. The result is that even though three more dams - Harangi, Hemavathi and Kabini - have come up in this area, apart from the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) dam built in 1924, there is not enough stored water to meet the increased demand, especially during raindeficient periods. The prime driver of the conflict is the Government’s inadvertent incentivisation for paddy cultivation. The Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy increased at a much faster rate than that of ragi. It is well-known that MSPs for essential commodities create a reference for market prices. With relative market prices moving in favour of paddy, there has been a shift in acreage from ragi to paddy, thereby increasing total water consumption manifold, as crop-water requirement of paddy is almost 15-20 times of that of ragi. OTHER CAUSES • Rapid urbanisation has converted fertile agriculture, forests and wetlands into concreted areas that are unable to retain rainwater or channel them into tributary streams that feed the Cauvery. • In the place of forests, plantations of water-hungry trees such as eucalyptus and acacia are further reducing the water table. In Coorg the felling lakhs of trees for the construction of a new railway line from Mysuru, and a high-tension power line. • Tree clearing is now threatening even previously protected sites on mountain heights and steep slopes, sensitive zones where soil erosion further impacts river recharge. Dense forest cover once helped reduce the likelihood of flash flooding, retaining water on hill slopes to enable slow percolation and recharge of the tributaries. Deforestation across the basin has contributed to reduction in groundwater level, soil erosion, and flooding, with hundreds of thousands of trees being decimated to make way for plantations, urban construction, and agriculture. In the place of forests, plantations of water-hungry trees such as eucalyptus and acacia are further reducing the water table. • In the districts surrounding the Cauvery, rampant sand mining has altered the natural topography of the river, eroding its banks, widening the river, and altering water flow patterns. • Industries along the Cauvery and its tributaries send large volumes of polluted water. The toxic sludge from industrial effluents builds up on the river bed, further reducing its capacity for storage. • The roots of the current strife can be traced back to the states’ refusal to comply with the outcomes of countless adjudication and arbitration efforts. The two neighbouring states were unwilling to work out a compromise formula.

WAY FORWARD •

In the longer term, experts will have to devise a sustainable agricultural solution (redesign of the farming system) for the Cauvery basin, as the river does not seem to have the potential to meet the farming requirements of both sides.

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If water is scarce, the solution should be to change the crop mix to reduce water consumption, not to reduce the share going to the other party. In a world of depleting water resources, fewer crop seasons and lower acreages, a resort to less water-intensive crops and better water management hold the key. So encourage farmers to switch from water intensive crops (paddy to ragi). For that the perverse incentive structure through the MSP regime of paddy has to be reversed. A more innovative pricing approach with region-specific MSPs needs to be adopted. Rather than pit farmers against each other, governments should promote SRI (system of rice intensification) irrigation techniques and less water intensive practices. Given that the Cauvery delta is urbanised, it is important that controlling water wastage and pollution is seen as integral aspects of river-sharing strategies. Managing disputes is as much about protecting rivers as it is about creating credible institutions to apportion water. Another possibility is to enhance the availability of water. The cost of solar power is lowering. When clean power is cheap, large-scale desalination of seawater becomes a real possibility. This will be good solution to the drinking water scarcity. Water has to be valued as a scarce resource and priced accordingly, to regulate its use optimally, whatever the source of that water. Since the problem is linked to the amount of rainfall, the Cauvery Tribunal’s 2007 award should be revisited to recalibrate the share of each riparian state based on a rainfall-linked formula. From the institutional perspective, there is an utmost need for a strong river basin organisation (RBO) that can take a basin-level approach to water management. The Centre must also shrug off its lethargy and constitute the long pending Cauvery Management Board and Regulatory Authority, which was mandated in 2013 to ensure a fair mechanism for sharing the river. Local Authorities and the appropriate Government shall take all measures to plan and manage water resources equitably, sustainably, and in a socially just manner. A three-layer system, implemented in the Mekong Basin among nations can be implemented. This dispute-resolution system — political at the highest level, coordinative at the second level and a delivery apparatus at the third level — has worked reasonably well. It is now institutionally incorporated in the Draft National Water Framework Bill 2016, which the ministry of water resources has placed in the public domain and circulated for comments by the States. Multiple stakeholders must be involved in a participative way, provided larger structure for support mechanisms to States and communities. Local government, CBOs (community based organisations), for the management of ponds, water bodies, watersheds, aquifers, and river basins were to be empowered. As laid down by the CWDT, the issue of water-sharing should be left in the hands of technical experts, and not politicians. Sustainable ground water usage necessitates demand management, supply augmentation, enhanced water...