The Mahanadi River, India’s sixth-largest, has become the subject of a bitter dispute between the States of Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
While the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal headed by Supreme Court judge Justice A.M. Khanwilkar completed its whirlwind inspections of infrastructure constructed over Mahanadi in Chhattisgarh earlier this week, Odisha is getting ready to convince the tribunal as to why it desperately needs river water for sustenance.
Behind all noises over the dispute, a monumental effort is underway to churn out mountains of data, which could actually help quantify the claim over every drop of Mahanadi water— an ‘unprecedented’ attempt to resolve inter-State River water dispute in India.
The inter-State Mahanadi Basin is mainly spread across Chhattisgarh and Odisha accounting for more than 99.5% of the basin area. A small portion of the catchment of less than 0.5% of the basin lies in the co-basin States of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
Going beyond the general information on water flow in Mahanadi and its availability in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, the tribunal has taken on challenging task of mathematically quantifying water needs.
The layers of information sought to be prepared in a specific format could run into thousands of pages covering all aspects of life. “It will be a humongous task to come up with tabulation of temperature and rainfall data of each day spanning over 100 years pertaining to thousands of places falling in the jurisdiction of Mahanadi basin,” said a senior officer in Odisha’s Water Resource department. As the issue is sub-judice, authorities are not ready to be quoted.
To arrive at the volume of water available in the Mahanadi River Basin, the tribunal would also examine data on sunshine, rainfall precipitation, water flow in canals, groundwater and open wells that are in use in villages. A geographic information system (GIS) map is being prepared to ascertain the availability of water in pre and post monsoon periods.
The number of buildings constructed and proposed to be built in the basin area will be part of an exercise to determine land use patterns in which water use is an integral element. As of now, water usage of riparian communities, water needs in farming, the construction sector, industry and even by a roadside eatery are being meticulously calculated. Their justification is being defined by comparing water consumption with water cess imposed on consumers over past several decades.
Information on soil temperature, soil moisture and soil infiltration are being collected. The tribunal has even asked for decadal information on evapotranspiration, a combination of evaporation and transpiration, which is measured in order to understand crop water requirements and irrigation scheduling.
To understand the water spread area during floods, the Revenue and Disaster Management Department is asked to provide information on submergence. The Mahanadi water flowing down to the sea is unlikely to be treated as wastage. The excess water could cater to the needs of specific plant species, animal species or even ants.
What may sound strange is that the Culture Department is compiling mythological accounts associated with Mahanadi River water. Besides, information temples built on the Bank of Mahanadi over decades could play a part in the exercise. “Any shortage of water in Mahanadi could impact temple rituals and hence, religious tradition may have to be compromised in future,” he said.
The Forest and Environment are important stakeholders in the massive deciphering of data. All the States have been asked to give minute details on flora and fauna dependent on Mahanadi River Water. Information on the general population, especially scheduled caste and scheduled caste, households, literacy rate, district-wise industry, their contribution to Odisha’s Gross Domestic Product and poverty level have been sought. The scale of data being sought for quantifying water needs is humongous.
The Dispute
Mahanadi is considered a lifeline for Odisha. Chhattisgarh, after its carving out of Madhya Pradesh, planned large-scale utilization of water by constructing a large number of major, medium and minor irrigation projects including anicuts and industrial barrages. Since both States do not have an inter-State water sharing treaty, the problem is now getting bigger.
Odisha gradually observed there was marked fall in the flow of Mahanadi into Odisha territory due to due to rapid construction and utilization of Mahanadi water by the upstream states, mainly the State of Chhattisgarh. According to the Odisha government, Chhattisgarh has built 536 anicuts and 30 barrages, many of them for industrial purposes. It further says water storage facilities in Chhattisgarh would have a long-term impact on flows downstream in Odisha which will impact irrigation, drinking water supply and ecologically sensitive coastal and delta area of Mahanadi.
Chhattisgarh claimed that 52.9% of the total catchment of Mahanadi and 89.9% of the catchment up to Hirakud lies in their State and they had a right to use the water of Mahanadi. Authorities here alleged that Chhattisgarh had not kept Odisha in the loop about new infrastructures on Mahanadi.
First, the Odisha government had drawn the attention of the Union Government to protect its interest and ultimately filed a statutory complaint. Subsequently, Odisha filed a suit at Supreme Court on the matter of Mahanadi water disputes. On the final hearing of this suit on January 23, 2018, the Apex Court directed the Union Government to constitute a tribunal. Accordingly, the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation constituted the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal (MWDT) on March 12, 2018 under Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.
Odisha had water disputes with Andhra Pradesh over the latter’s infrastructure on rivers originating from its geographical jurisdictions. Most of these issues were, however, related to the submergence of Odisha villages by backwaters of projects being developed in Andhra Pradesh. However, this is the first time, Odisha is dealing with a dispute which requires rigorous exercise to quantify water needs and dependence on Mahanadi River. The tribunal is likely to start its Odisha visit from May 18.
