Dinesh Gooligowda, MLC, has urged the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) to find a lasting solution to the sharing of the Cavery water in times of distress.
He has also sought an an ‘’impartial’’ report from hydrology experts drawn from outside the four riparian States.
In a letter to the CWMA chairman, Mr. Gooligowda, who was elected from the Local Bodies’ constituency from Mandya district, went into the details of the dispute and said that ever since the Supreme Court’s order in 2018, the CWMA had not faced any difficulties for the release of Cauvery water from Karnataka following copious rainfall.
His letter drew attention to the drought in 2023 and said that people of Karnataka in the Cauvery basin were facing severe shortage of water as the monsoon had failed and pointed out that the rainfall deficiency in the Cauvery basin was 54%.
Mr. Gooligowda said while people of Karnataka are facing a difficult time, Tamil Nadu was putting pressure to ensure the release of Cauvery water as was being done in the normal-water years. Despite a severe water crisis, the Karnataka government was complying with the CWMA’s order so far, he added.
Stating that the water shortage was the worst in 123 years, Mr. Gooligowda urged the CWMA chairman to take immediate stock of the water shortage in the State and appoint the committee of expert hydrologists and spell out a distress-sharing formula.
The MLC said the order of the CWMA to release water to Tamil Nadu had caused untold miseries to the people of the region, and the people of Mandya are facing the threat of water shortage in the coming days.
‘’Hence it was high time the CWMA comes out with a distress sharing formula for sharing of Cauvery water during deficit monsoon year,” Mr. Gooligowda added.
