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Thursday, September 8, 2016

Is a fair solution to the Cauvery river water dispute so hard?

A solution may lie in forming a Cauvery Management Board, like in Bhakra Beas, to take over operations of all Cauvery dams and direct how much water is released downstream even in distress years.

There has been no will to countenance the bypassing of political authority and let scientific management take over, acting independently of pulls and pressures.

Such a board was ordered to be set up by the tribunal that ruled on the disputes and gave its final award in 2007.

Under the 2007 final award, Karnataka is to keep 270 tmc feet while giving 419 tmc feet to Tamil Nadu, besides 30 tmc feet to Kerala and 7 tmc feet to Puducherry

Procrastination in setting up an authority led to periodic heartburn along the river’s course, now further complicated by proposals to build new dams, including in Kerala across a tributary of the Cauvery tributary Bhavani named Siruvani, and in Mekedatu in Karnataka

The wisdom of generations of Supreme Court judges has been unable to find the ultimate equitable solution that would stop the states of upper riparian Karnataka and lower riparian Tamil Nadu bickering with each other, while Kerala and Puducherry watch with interest as they also have a share in the river’s bounty.

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