mentions it is subject to outcome of pleas before sc Mahadayi Water Management Authority’ to implement award
the goan I network
PANAJI
In an expected move, the Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation on Thursday notified August, 2018 award passed by the Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal in the decades-long water sharing dispute between Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Citing the SC order of around a week ago which allowed Karnataka’s plea to have the award notified, the Union Water Resources Secretary published the notification in the official gazette.
The origin of the Mhadei river is in Karnataka and it runs almost 80 per-cent of its course in North Goa after flowing briefly in Maharashtra. It finally meets the Arabian Sea at Miramar in Panaji.
The tribunal’s award has allotted 13.42 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) to Karnataka. Of this amount of water, 3.9 TMC is permitted to be diverted outside the Mhadei basin and into Karnataka’s water deficient Malaprabha river basin. The award also allots 1.33 TMC to Maharashtra.
The notification also mentions that pleas challenging various parts of the award have been filed by Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra before the Supreme Court and adds that the notification of the award is subject to the outcome of these petitions.
Goa’s political temperature got heated up after last week’s direction by the Apex Court to the Centre to notify the award.
Goa has been insisting through the two-decade-old dispute that any diversion of water will cause irreparable damage to its ecology, particularly in the sensitive Western ghats region.
Meanwhile, the notification of the award said, the Centre shall set up an Authority, called ‘Mahadayi Water Management Authority’ to implement the award of the Tribunal.
