Oh! Kaveri maa!

My friend, Akshay Kumar was so dull today morning. I asked, “Why man, you are so dull?” He answered me, “It’s about my village (in Bihar).  There my parents are struggling with hip level water. I m in Bangalore, How can I help them?” He sighed a long sad breath. I cannot answer.

“Hi chill up man, tomorrow bandh. Holiday. Enjoy.”

With this one more event I must share up to you.

One of my students, Ms. A asked me, “Sir, are you supporting Tamil Nadu? Tomorrow bandh sir. If you are supporting Tamil Nadu you should not support this bandh. Come to school and work.” I cannot answer.

Karnataka government called for bandh tomorrow to go against the verdict of Supreme Court.

I think that it is extremely harsh on the people of Karnataka. Including me. My students cannot attend the classes. Exam is nearing. I should be burning my midnight oil. Why should be an holiday? And why should Saturday be full working day?

But who is to be blamed for it? Tamil Nadu government? Supreme Court? Karnataka government and lawyers?

Tamil Nadu government did not do anything wrong by appealing to the Supreme Court and asking for water. They too were in a desperate situation. My parents are living in Madurai. The situation there is bad. The biggest disadvantage Tamil Nadu has is that they have only one major river basin in the state i.e. the Kaveri river basin. There is no major river there apart from Kaveri. The entire state is totally dependent on Kaveri.

When Tamil Nadu filed the petition in the Supreme Court, a group of farmer representatives from that state met the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and requested him to release some water so that their samba crop wouldn’t be damaged. The Karnataka government clearly told them that the water level in the reservoirs in the Kaveri basin is very low and we wouldn’t be able to supply water. The state’s lawyers also communicated the same to the Supreme Court initially. The people in Karnataka including myself also thought there was no water in our reservoirs and hence wouldn’t be able to release water to Tamil Nadu.

But on the day of the hearing, our great lawyers communicated to the Supreme Court that Karnataka would be able to release at least 10 TMC ft of water to Tamil Nadu over a period of 7 days. Tamil Nadu had demanded 15-20 TMC ft of water to be released over a period of 10–15 days. The SC on its part came up with a middle figure and directed Karnataka to release 13 TMC ft water over a period of 10 days. Look at the irresponsibility of the Karnataka lawyers. They said at least 10 TMC ft and not at most 10 TMC ft!

Moreover if we were in a position to supply 10 TMC ft of water, why didn’t the CM negotiate with the farmer representatives of Tamil Nadu? All this mess could have been easily sorted out. The only insensitive thing said by the SC bench was when they said “live and let live” to Karnataka. It is insensitive because in the matter concerning the Mahadayi dispute, the tribunal ruled in favour of Goa and rejected Karnataka’s demand. So much for “live and let live”.

For years, politicians and lawyers have taken both the people of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for a ride. In the end, it is the common people living in both the states that have suffered either because the judgement was not in their favour or because of the backlash in their respective states. It is time that people say enough is enough. We can’t keep fighting amongst ourselves. States like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana must pressurize the Central government so that the interlinking of rivers can be done. The Himalayan rivers never go dry and their water can be used in the south where the rivers go dry if in case rains fail.

Ok. We will go to international water sharing rules.

The Helsinki Rules on the Uses of the Waters of International Rivers is an international guideline regulating how rivers and their connected ground waters that cross national boundaries may be used, adopted by the International Law Association(ILA) in Helsinki, Finland in August 1966.  

The Helsinki rules consist of 37 articles spread over 6 chapters.[3]Chapter 2, Article 4 states: "Each basin State is entitled, within its territory, to a reasonable and equitable share in the beneficial uses of the waters of an international drainage basin".In determining what is reasonable and equitable share, all relevant factors are to be considered together and a conclusion reached on the basis of the whole.

A slice of information about Kaveri river basin:

The Kaveri river’s basin covers four states and Union Territories, as follows: Tamil Nadu, 43,856 square kilometers; Karnataka, 34,273 square kilometers; Kerala, 2,866 square kilometers; and Puducherry, 160 square kilometers.

Interlinking of rivers was one of the dreams of our beloved President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. It is up to us to make sure that we do something on the issue. The states that I have mentioned pay the highest taxes to the Central government. If they collectively put enough sustained pressure, the Central government will be forced to act. Calling a bandh, burning buses, disrupting vehicular movement, and causing hatred among people is not at all a viable solution. Measures need to be taken so that Tamil Nadu is no longer too reliant on Kaveri and Karnataka also doesn’t have a problem to release water if required.

I think the conclusion is enough for the answer to Mr. Akshay Kumar and Ms. A. The questions may be different. But answer is same.