Keri: Prawah visits Kankumbi, but not site of water diversion

KERI: The Mhadei-Prawah team finally visited Kankumbi on Sunday under chairperson P M Scott. Goa has been seeking an inspection of the work site of Karnataka which has diverted water from the Mhadei basin into the Malaprabha basin.
Scott was accompanied by officials of the water resources departments of Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
During the inspection, Karnataka made a presentation to the team, pressing for the work of damming and diversion schemes of the Kalasa-Bhandura project.
They told Prawah members that the project is necessary to meet the drinking water needs of north Karnataka.
Karnataka govt said that it has been allocated 3.9TMC feet of water, which can be taken outside the Mhadei basin, and 1.5TMC feet for in-basin use by the Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal in 2018.
The officials said that the Central Water Commission too has given the necessary technical approval for the revised detailed project report of the Kalasa-Bhandura project in 2023.
Due to objections to the Prawah team's visit to the Kalasa project site, police force was deployed to maintain law and order at Kankumbi on Sunday.
The team first visited the Haltara nullah site at Chorla, where Karnataka has proposed to undertake damming and diversion projects.
Karnataka has proposed construction of a chain of five bandharas across the Surla nullah that flows through the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary.
The Prawah team visited areas of the proposed bandharas across the Surla nullah and noted the natural flow of water in the direction of the Mhadei sanctuary of Goa on one side and the Karnataka reserve forests on the other.
On Sunday, Goa's WRD secretary pushed for the team to visit the spot where water is supposed to flow naturally into Goa but has been diverted into the Malaprabha basin by Karnataka.
However, Karnataka officials refused to do so and showed the two vents that were blocked by the state in 2014 as per the directives of the Tribunal.
Karnataka did not show how it made arrangements to facilitate the diversion of a large quantum of the Kalasa water in the reverse direction.
The team visited the conduit having three openings. In the evening, the team visited the proposed hydro-electricity project site at Chapoli, across the Kotni nullah, and the proposed damming and diversion site across the Bhandura nullah in Nerse, near Khanapur.