Mahanadi dispute: Centre fails to end Odisha-Chattisgarh water-sharing impasse

A water-sharing dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh over the Mahandi is heating up after months of Centre-brokered negotiations couldn’t break a deadlock over the construction of controversial reservoirs.

Published on: Sep 23, 2016, 23:27:56 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A water-sharing dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh over the Mahandi is heating up after months of Centre-brokered negotiations couldn’t break a deadlock over the construction of controversial reservoirs.

A swollen Mahanadi river flowing above the danger mark near Mundali in Cuttack. Odisha and Chhattisgarh are yet to find a solution to the water-sharing dispute over the river. (File Photo)

Chhattisgarh wants to build six dams and inter-link some Mahanadi tributaries for better irrigation and storage of water for the lean months. Odisha says the dams will deplete water in its main reservoir, the Hirakud dam.

At a meeting of the two states at the Union water resources ministry last week, Chhattisgarh alleged that the under-construction barrages will have a total capacity of 274 (million cubic meter) MCM, much less than the amount of water lost from the Hirakud dam due to siltation.

“The differences are huge between the two states and could not be resolved,” a Union water ministry official said.

Read | Centre steps in to solve Mahanadi river water dispute

The Hirakud was built over the Mahanadi in 1957 to hold 5,518 MCM but has lost nearly a fifth of this capacity due to gathering silt. This means that the dam can’t store excess water and that water is wasted.

“What we are taking from Mahanadi is not from Odisha’s share. In fact, the live-storage capacity of our dams have also done down by 345 MCM due to siltation and storage capacity of new barrages would be less than that,” a Chhattisgarh government official said.

Chhattisgarh also claims Odisha’s own data shows non-monsoon water flow in the river has increased, meaning that the new projects don’t pose any danger to the Hirakud Dam.

But Odisha has contested this claim, saying Chhattisgarh had erred in treating the impact of each project separately and not in an integrated manner.

Water resources ministry officials say Odisha wants a cumulative impact study of all projects developed by Chhattisgarh on the flow of water to the Hirakud dam, rather than individual, on the grounds that these projects “dramatically” reduce the water flow.

“We have assured Odisha that the CWC will examine their claim that water flow to Hirakud dam will reduce if Chhattisgarh is allowed to build the projects,” the ministry official said.

Read | India can avoid water wars in the future by mixing old and new solutions

Chhattisgarh, half of whose area falls in Mahanadi river basin, says some of these projects were approved by the Central Water Commission after seeking comments from Odisha and wouldn’t affect water flow. In addition, survey on four projects diverting water from Arpa river, a tributary of Mahanadi, and Pairi-Mahanadi river linking project has also started.

Complicating matters is a growing political rivalry between the Biju Janata Dal – which is in power in Odisha – and the BJP, which rules Chhattigarh.

The BJD has turned the Mahanadi dispute into a political issue to hit the BJP that aspires to form next government in one of the poorest states of India. Odisha chief minister Navin Patnaik has already met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party MPs stalled Lok Sabha proceedings for a day, accusing the Centre of being biased in favour of Chhattisgarh.

Also read | Glimpse into future? India, brace for more Cauvery-like water wars

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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