Tamil Nadu won't get Cauvery, but I will bring water: Dr Subramanian Swamy

Chennai: Tamil Nadu would never be able to get Cauvery water from Karnataka, declared BJP Rajya Sabha member Dr Subramanian Swamy, insisting that setting up desalination plants along the coastline was the only answer to the state’s water crisis.

“People must first decide what they want — water or Cauvery water? If they want Cauvery water, they will never be able to get that. But if they just want water, we could have the vast seawater converted into potable water through desalination plants. Let Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami ask me if he does not know and I shall get four desalination plants from Israel for installation here”, the inimitable Dr Swamy told reporters at the airport here on Sunday.

“You will never have any water problem if I get the Israeli desalination plants installed here”, Dr Swamy said. When it was pointed out that TN was knocking on Karnataka’s doors as there was not enough water in the Mettur reservoir to save the standing samba crop in the Cauvery delta, he said desalination plants would provide a permanent solution. “You will never have water crisis after that”, he said.

To another question on inadequate allocations for TN in the Central Budget, Dr Swamy said the TN MPs should function effectively in the Parliament to secure enough funds and projects for the state. “They should not function like cattle”, he said. 

This is not the first time that Dr Swamy is recommending Israeli desalination plants to quench TN thirst. Even on January 30, he had tweeted: “Tamil Nadu CM must stop begging for Cauvery water from Karnataka govt. He should instead set up four desalination plants on the TN coast”. 

That tweet got huge response in social media with many raising questions how water from desalination plants could be pumped across vast hinterland to reach the delta farmers — the distance, the cost of maintenance and diesel. One twitterati asked Dr Swamy why he could not get the Israeli PM Netanyahu to sell the desalination technology directly to TN when he visited India a couple of weeks ago. “Without TN CM asking me?” shot back the BJP senior.