Kalasa Banduri Project Of Karnataka – Why Goa Is Objecting It

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What is the project ?

The Kalasa-Banduri Nala is a project undertaken by the Government of Karnataka.
The project proposes to divert water of Mahadayi river (also known as Mandovi) from Kalasa and Banduri canals into the Malaprabha river.
It involves building dams across Kalasa and Banduri, two tributaries of the Mahadayi river to divert 7.56 TMC of water to the Malaprabha river, which supplies the drinking water needs of northern districts of Karnataka.
The project aims to facilitate drinking water 13 towns of Dharwad, Belagavi, Bagalkote and Gadag that is part of the northern parts of Karnataka that is home to the second most arid regions in the country after Rajasthan.

The Mhadei (or Mahadayi/Mahadeyi) rises in the Western Ghats of Karnataka’s Belagavi district, and enters Goa North Goa.
Several streams join it along its course, and the river grows in volume to become the Mandovi, one of Goa’s two major rivers, before flowing into the Arabian Sea at Panaji.
Two-thirds (76 km) of the 111-km Mhadei flows in Goa (where it is called Mandovi).

Tensions over sharing the Mhadei’s water started in the 1980s and escalated through the early 1990s as Karnataka designed several dams and canals to channel water to the Malaprabha basin to address endemic water shortages in its northern districts.
Goa asked for a Tribunal in 2002 and, four years later, moved the Supreme Court.
The central government set up the Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal in November 2010.

August 2018 – The interstate water disputes tribunal for Mhadei river water sharing gave its decision –

Goa – 33.395 Thousand million cubic feet (TMC)
Karnataka – 13.42 tmcft .It includes 3.9 TMC for diversion into the Malaprabha river basin .
Maharashtra – was allotted 1.33 TMC
Sea – allowing the surplus 147.935 tmcft of water to be let into the sea.

Goa and Karnataka have both challenged the award, and the matter is pending in the Supreme Court.

In April 2019 , the Karnataka submitted to the Union Environment Ministry documents related to the Rs 840-crore “Khalasa Bhandura Drinking Water supply Scheme”
On October 17, the Ministry confirmed Karnataka’s request for waiver of provisions of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006, provided some steps were followed.
The Goa state government had written to Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar reiterating its demand for withdrawal of the EC exemption given to the Karnataka government.

‘’Mahadayi is the lifeline of Goa’’
Goa has been resisting any diversion as it would hurt the fragile ecosystem of the coastal state.

Of the 12 rivers in Goa , 11 rivers hold salt water.
Only Mhadei fulfils the needs of drinking water.
The sweet-water Mandovi is crucial to water security and ecology
It is an important source of fish.
If seawater ingress happens in a weak and depleted Mhadei, Goa stands to lose its paddy cultivation as well.
Goa authorities insist that the water needs of Hubli-Dharwad can be met by curtailing irrigation or diverting water from other rivers in Karnataka.
The quantum of diversion is much more than what the towns need for drinking supply.
Karnataka says the Mahadayi river is not water deficient and blamed Goa for not fully using its water before it flows into the Arabian sea.

The proposed project falls within the ecologically sensitive area identified earlier by Karnataka Forests Department and the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel headed by Dr Madhav Gadgil in their report in 2011 and subsequently the high level working group appointed under the chairmanship of Dr Kasturirangan in their report of 2013.
The project also falls within the eco-sensitive zone of Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary