Drought? Last month alone Maha govt drained 350 MCM water into sea!

Maharashtra diverted more than 350 million cubic metres (MCM) water from the Krishna-Bhima basins to the high rainfall coastal region of Konkan (which received 1,467.1 mm rain till August 7, 2015) from where it drained out to the sea between July 1 to August 6. This, at a time when the state is struggling with rain deficit, drought, crop failure and may be staring at a drinking water crisis!

The westward water wastage is happening through the four-stage Koyna dam which annually diverts 1,911 MCM of water. Given its installed capacity and the power it generated in this period this works out to 216.7 MCM. That's how much water was allowed to drain off into the sea after power generation. Similarly, the three Tata hydropower stations (Khopoli, Bhivpuri and Bhira), divert 1,413 MCM of water annually as a run-off. This works out to at least 136.64 MCM for the same period.

This water could have saved crops and farmers from suicides in the killing fields across Marathwada in Maharashtra and also in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana downstream. As of now Koyna dam has 1,948 MCM water, which is 69% of its capacity and the Tata dams have 587 MCM water, which is 52% of their storage capacity, compared to Ujani, Srisailam and Nagarjunsagar dams, all of which have zero water in terms of live storage as per the latest Central Water Commission reservoir storage report. "The collective amount of 2,535 MCM of live storage water in Koyna and Tata dams could be easily released into the Bhima-Krishna basins to benefit the whole river basin, right till the tail end in Krishna delta," pointed out Parineeta Dandekar of South Asia Network of Dams Rivers and People (SANDRP). "Currently all this water is stored for future diversion to sea via Konkan."

Understandably this has led to outrage downstream since both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are already conserving available water for drinking. "We aren't even releasing water for saving crops in the Krishna delta. It's shocking to hear about the callous way in which water is allowed to flow into the sea," lamented irrigation advisor to Telengana state, Vidyasagar Rao, who added, "We know the Krishna water tribunal has allocated Maharashtra more water. So challenging it legally may not be possible but we will raise this with the Centre so that something can be done at least on humanitarian grounds."

In Maharashtra, where perennially dry Marathwada is reeling under its worst rainfall deficit with only 5% water left in its dams, Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan denied having any information of water flowing into the sea. "As of now we can only pray to the rain gods to ensure enough rains. If we could bring that water to Marathwada we'd have done so on priority. We can't stop diverting water to the Tata dams because this'll affect the power production."

Experts like Himanshu Thakkar of the SANDRP are not convinced. "From July 1 to August 6, 2015, wind power generation in Maharashtra was 1,378.1 MU, almost three times the power generation from Koyna and Tata dams that could have been forgone if the diversion was stopped," said Thakkar adding, "Moreover, it's well known that during this period, power demand across the country is so low that the plant load factor of thermal power projects has come close to 50% from a peak of 80%. NTPC's own records show poor off-take of power with the cost of power at power exchanges coming down to below Rs 2.5 per unit, from Rs 7.5 per unit a few years ago. While this shows how loss of power could've been compensated, there's no way to compensate the losses due to loss of water for the farmers."

Interestingly, Mahajan himself informed dna, "Kharif crop across Marathwada has failed due to lack of water. Lakhs of farmers are staring at crop loss even after repeated sowing. Though we've deployed nearly 1,800 plus tankers in the region, demand is growing." The minister's concerns find resonance with senior officials at the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority who agree that stopping diversion of Koyna waters will benefit lakhs of farmers in Maharashtra, Andhra and Telengana. "The question is of political will," said a senior official.