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7/11/2016 River of discord The New Indian Express
http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/Riverofdiscord/2016/07/07/article3517054.ece# 1/2
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By Express News Service Published: 07th July 2016 05:32 AM Last Updated: 07th July 2016 05:32 AM
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River of discord
It’s a drinking water project that is ambitious in scale and purpose but whosecourse is riven by hurdles. The Yettinahole project, which has pitted coastalKarnataka against the southern Karnataka districts of Kolar and Chikkaballapur, isnow being challenged at the principal bench of the National Green Tribunal in NewDelhi.
The river diversion project has antagonised people on the coast who are trying tostop it, while those in the parched south hope it will alleviate water woes. Politicalobservers see it as a threat to the integrity of Karnataka, environmentalists see itas a disaster in the making while politicians are making capital out of it on eitherside of the divide.
The central debatehas been about theamount of wateravailable atYettinahole, one ofthe tributaries of theriver Nethravathi,which ows into theArabian Sea.
TheParamashivaiahCommittee report,submitted in 1972,suggested tappingthe 3,000 tmc ftdraining into thesea. Noting that just10 per cent of thiswater could irrigate26 lakh acres, thereport said theproject could betaken up in an eco-friendly manner.
The Karnataka government woke up to the recommendations four decades later,and announced its implementation. This led to a series of demonstrations for andagainst the project. Prof Muzaffar Assadi, Department of Political Science,University of Mysore, sees several complications. “The rami cations might possiblyinclude the revival of the demand for a separate Tulunadu state,” he said, recallingthat the Cauvery dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had eventually ledto the setting up of a tribunal.
The water crisis in several parts of south-interior Karnataka has been severe. InKolar, Chikkaballapur and other districts, groundwater levels have plummeted tonew lows.
In 2013, the government decided to take up the Yettinahole project “to meet theacute water crisis in Kolar, Chikkaballapur and Bengaluru Rural districts.”
Water Resources Minister M B Patil had told the Legislative Council that water liftedfrom Yettinahole would feed canals connecting various lakes in the affecteddistricts.
On September 13, 2015, former chief minister M Veerappa Moily had to faceprotesters waving slippers and black ags. After declaring his support for theproject, he backed off, saying it was not his brainchild.
Other leaders have faced public wrath for the delay in implementing the project.According to Dinesh Holla, convenor of Sahyadri Samrakshana Sanchaya, theproject would sound the death knell for the 148 km-long Nethravathi river.
In March this year, ryots from Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts protested inBengaluru, following which the state said it would speed up the project. Irrigationexpert C Narasimhappa has said it was the only ray of hope to prevent Kolar,Chikkaballapur and Bengaluru Rural districts from turning into deserts.
However, several scientists, like Prof T V Ramachandra of the Centre for EcologicalSciences, Indian Institute of Science, believe the water shortage can be addressedby other means, such as rainwater harvesting. They have advised the governmentthat the project will be disastrous to the environment.
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