Tamil Nadu, Kerala to get 9.19 tmcft Cauvery water

New Delhi/Mysuru: The Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) on Tuesday asked Karnataka to release 9.19 tmcft water to the lower riparian states, including Tamil Nadu,  which is the prescribed quota for the month of June under the final notification of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal,.

The CWMA’s direction came at a meeting attended by  representatives of the Centre and  Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Puducherry. Following the meeting Mr S Masood Husain, chairman of the CWMA said it had taken a decision for release of 9.19 tmcft of water by Karnataka at Biligundlu for June this year.

The order is bound to be welcomed by Tamil Nadu, where several districts are grappling with acute water shortage. The Centre had last week issued a drought advisory to the state in the backdrop of depleting water levels in its reservoirs.

But Karnataka’s farmers were far from  happy. Mr Kurbur Shanthakumar, head of the state federation of farmers’ organisations said the CWC must revise its resolution as the monsoon forecast was not encouraging for the state.

Currently, Karnataka  has 14.61 tmcft of water in all the reservoirs of the Cauvery catchment area. Of this, 3 tmcft is needed to meet a month's drinking water requirements of Bengaluru, Mysuru, 625 villages and 43 towns. Worryingly, the Meteorological department too has predicted 23 per cent deficit rainfall in June and July, which may only lead to saturation of the ground, and not greatly increase the inflow into the dams.  

Dr G S Srinivasreddy of the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, however believes that with the South West Monsoon likely to arrive in the state by  June 7,  it may be able to release 9.19 tmcft to the lower riparian states as ordered.