Experts, former bureaucrats say resolution not in sight

The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday ordered a reduction in allocation of Cauvery river water released from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu, amending the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT) award while retaining the water sharing formula during the distress years. Interestingly, the SC has also handed the Central government the responsibility of forming an authority, perhaps in the form of a Cauvery management board, within six weeks to implement its orders. The SC added that Centre will not get any extension to form the authority.

Experts and former bureaucrats though, have questioned the feasibility of SC verdict's implementation and said that allocation will not lead to a meaningful long-standing resolution until the timing and proportion of release is made suitable, especially in times of distress. They also said that the time granted to form the authority was too short.

"As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, these (water allocation) numbers make no sense. It will be relevant only if there is timely release of the required water. The CWDT award, too, had directed for the constitution of a Cauvery board but, that never happened," said Professor S Janakarajan, president, South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies, a policy research institute based in Hyderabad.

While the SC's verdict stated that no state can claim exclusive ownership of such waters, it has retained the CWDT's directive that in case the yield of Cauvery basis is less in a distress year, the allocated shares shall be proportionately reduced among all four states - Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Union territory of Puducherry. This means that the proportion of allocation would not change irrespective of the availability.

Former Secretary of Ministry of Water Resources, Shashi Shekhar, said that six weeks provided to form an authority to implement the order was not feasible at all. "Any authority on water disputes has to be constituted under the Inter State Water Disputes Act and for this, a Cabinet note has been prepared. Then it is deliberated and approved in the Cabinet, following which, it has to be placed before the Parliament for 30 days at a stretch," Shekhar said.

He added, "Given the procedure to be followed, six weeks is too short a time to frame such a body because the Parliament also needs enough time to discuss it." In the past, after first accepting SC's directive to form a Cauvery management board, the Centre had done a U-turn.

The former secretary also pointed out that the discharge of water during a distress year will always remain contentious until there is real-time data. "For transparency, we need real-time data on rainfall and discharge of water. This will bring in clarity on upstream use of water," Shekhar said.