Karnataka Asked To Release Water To Tamil Nadu Till January

Bengaluru: To Tamil Nadu’s demand of 14 tmc water release from Karnataka, Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) on Tuesday asked Karnataka to continue its water to Tamil Nadu till January. However, the water release to Tamil Nadu will be 3128 cusecs till December and later the water release will be 1030 cusecs till January.

Earlier, Karnataka appealed to the CWRC that it will not be in a position to release water to Tamil Nadu from its reservoirs since there is a shortfall in cumulative inflows to the reservoirs as on December 18. The water level in its reservoirs stood at 52.84 percent.

Before the CWRC, Karnataka contended that rainfall in River Cauvery delta of Tamil Nadu expected in the remaining North-East monsoon season and so Tamil Nadu will have sufficient soil moisture to sustain the standing crops, if any.

It also brought to the notice of CWRC that Tamil harvested kuruvai crop by September and Samba crop has been harvested by first week of December and therefore there is no need for water release to Tamil Nadu.

Karnataka brought to the notice of CWRC that Mettur dam and Bhavani Sagar reservoir in Tamil Nadu has significant storage of water of about 50. 367 tmc which is more than the requirement of Tamil Nadu.

CWRC was told that four reservoirs, Krishnaraja Sagar, Harangi, Hemavathy and Kabini ion River Cauvery basin of Karnataka have low water storage and inflow to these reservoirs has ceased and there is no expectation of inflow to these reservoirs. Karnataka is bound to manage the requirements of existing crops, drinking water needs and industrial needs from its existing storage of 52.84 percent.