Kodagu downpour may drown state's water woes

After the drought scare over the Cauvery basin for the past month or so, the hills of Kodagu are finally seeing some signs of rainfall, which may fill up the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) reservoir in Srirangapatnam, thereby assuring water for irrigation and domestic use in cities like Bangalore and Mysore.

It has been moderately raining over Kodagu district and according to the rainfall pattern in the region, the monsoon is likely to get vigorous over the next week.

Bhagamandala, near Talacauvery in Kodagu district, which is stated to be the natural measuring rod of rain in the Cauvery basin, received 15 cm of rain in the past 24 hours.
Madapura received 8 cm, followed by 5 cm each in Madikeri, Napoklu and Somawarpet.

According to official sources in the Indian Meteorological Department in Bangalore, the monsoon is going to be stronger in the Cauvery basin area. On the other side of the Cauvery basin, over the Western Ghats, Agumbe received 5 cm of rainfall in the past 24 hours.

As a result, the water woes of Bangalore and Mysore have reduced considerably. According to the executive engineer of the KRS, Vijaykumar, the water level, which had come below the dead storage level (64 feet), has now risen to 66.85 feet with an inflow of 5,837 cusecs per day for the past two days.

At this rate, experts hope the reservoir will reach its full level (124.80 ft) by the end of August or latest by the first week of September.

But then, with Tamil Nadu renewing its demand of 46 TMC ft of water with the central government, the KRS reservoir might lose water rapidly. Usually, the water-sharing calendar begins sometime in September and goes on till December.

The Tamil Nadu government has demanded that two different bodies—the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Control Authority—should be floated, which has made the situation of Karnataka weaker.

Since the Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu has been viewed as a potential ally of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre in the next parliamentary elections, both the Congress government in Karnataka and the central government are likely to accede to the demands of Tamil Nadu, fear farmer leaders in the Cauvery basin.