The Krishna River is the second biggest river in peninsular India. It originates near Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra from the statue of a cow in a temple. It then runs for a distance of 303 km in Maharashtra, 480 km through the breadth of North Karnataka and the rest of its 1300 km journey in Andhra Pradesh before it empties into the Bay of Bengal.
The river basin [1] is 257,000 km², and the States of Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh contributes 68,800 km² (26.8%), 1,12,600 sq.k.m. (43.8%) and 75,600 km² (29.4%) respectively.
Due to the inter state nature of the river and the multiple parties concerned, disputes arose between the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh over sharing of the waters. The Government of India constituted the Krishna Waters Disputes Tribunal in 1969 under the Inter State Water Disputes Act of 1956. This was headed by R. S Bachawat a former judge of the Supreme Court.
The Bachawat commission went over the matter in detail and gave its final award in 1973. While the Tribunal had in its earlier report detailed two schemes, Scheme A and Scheme B, the final award only included Scheme A and Scheme B was left out. Scheme A pertained to the division of the available waters based on 75% dependability, while Scheme B recommended ways to share the surplus waters.
The government took another three years to publish the award in its Extraordinary Gazette dated …. 1976. With that the final award(Scheme A) of the KWDT became binding on the three states.
The KWDT in its award outlined the exact share of each state. The award contended based on 75% dependability that the total quantum of water available for distribution was 2060TMC. This was divided between the three states in the following manner.
| Maharashtra | 560 TMC |
| Karnataka | 700 TMC |
| Andhra Pradesh | 800 TMC |
In addition to the above, the states were allowed to use regeneration/return flows to the extent of 25, 34 and 11 TMC respectively. Further, the Tribunal has allowed the States to utilise their allocated share of water for any project as per their plans. As per clauses V & VII of final order of KWDT-1, a state can fully use its allocated water in any water year (in case of deficit water year also) by utilising the carry over storage facility. A state can create carryover storage during the years when water yield in the river is in excess of 2130 TMC to use in the water year when water yield in the river is less than 2130 TMC. Thus KWDT-1 [2] allocated water use from the river up to 2130 TMC out of average yield in the river and not subject to water availability in a 75% dependable year.The average yield in the river is assessed as 2578 TMC by recent KWDT-2.
Including regeneration, the total water available to Karnataka for utilisation is 734 TMC. Out of this, Upper Krishna Project has been allotted with 173 TMC.
Contents |
The tribunal in its report, under Scheme B, has determined that the surplus water available in the river basin totaled 330 TMC. It was decided that this would be divided among the riparian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in the ratio of 25%, 50% and 25% respectively.
The tribunal also made it clear that in case any one of the states were not to co-operate in sharing surplus water in the above ratio, Parliament should take a decision to distribute the surplus water through en enactment (Page 163 KWDT report Vol.II).
However, Scheme B involved the constitution of an authority (Krishna River Valley Authority) to ensure the implementation of the scheme. The constitution of such an authority, though, was outside the powers of the tribunal under the Inter State Water Disputes Act of 1956. As a result, Scheme B was left out of the Tribunal’s final award and Scheme A alone was presented to the government for final notification in the Gazette[3].
Therefore, for the time being, Andhra Pradesh has been given permission to make use of any surplus waters though it cannot claim any rights over the same.
The KWDT provided for a review of its award after 31 May 2000. However no such review was taken up for more than 3 years after that.
In Sep 2003, the second KWDT, KWDT-II was constituted by the Govt of India following requests by all three states. This tribunal has started its proceedings from 16.07.07.
The second Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal gave its verdict on December 31, 2010. The allocation of available water was done according to 65% dependability, considering the records of flow of water for past 47 years. According to KWDT II[4], Andhra Pradesh got 1001 TMC ft of water, Karnataka 911 and Maharashtra 666. the next review of water will be the year 2050. KWDT-2 has allocated entire average water (2578 TMC) yield in the river among states except 6 TMC which is to be let downstream of Prakasam Barrage near Vijayawada to the Sea as environmental flows. There is no water allocation for the purpose of salt export to the sea. When rain water comes in contact with the soil, it picks up some salts in dissolved form from the soil. The total amount of dissolved salts contained in the river water has to reach sea without accumulating in the river basin. This process is called "salt export" If all the water is utilized without letting adequate water to the Sea, the water salinity / total dissolved salts (TDS) would be so high making it unfit for human, cattle and agriculture use. The low lands of Andhra Pradesh would be effected by salinity[5] if adequate salt export is not taking place. Water is not safe for drinking if the TDS exceeds 500 mg/l. The average yearly salt export requirement is nearly 12 million tons in Krishna basin area up to Prakasam Barrage. At least 850 TMC water is required for salt export[6] purpose to maintain water TDS below 500 mg/l. This is including 400 TMC of Krishna river water being used outside the Krishna basin in AP. This water used outside the basin area is also serving the salt export purpose since salts are transferred outside the basin. Thus another 450 TMC is to be let to the sea for salt export purpose. If salt export needs are considered, there is no further water to allocate by KWDT-2 in excess of the 2130 TMC allocation made by KWDT-1 earlier. The water allocation by KWDT-1 itself is 83% of 2578 TMC total water availability. During the years 1998-2007, 510 TMC on an average per year was discharged in to sea out of 2402 TMC annual average yield (page 303 of KWDT-2) in the river which is 21% of total yield. The water TDS[7] is around 450 mg/l during peak monsoon months which is highest among the major Indian rivers.
Unplanned water utilization in Murray - Darling River basin in Australia has enhanced the salinity /TDS of river water beyond safe limits which is affecting the long term sustainable productivity of the river basin [8]. So Murray - Darling Basin Authority is established to take up remedial action plan for recovering the damage occurred to the sustainable productivity of the river basin. Water quality and salinity management is made part of this plan. It has stipulated that water TDS limit of 500 mg/L should not exceed 95% of the duration in a year [9]. It has altered existing water use/entitlement of irrigation to enhance the water required for salt export.
Another example of river water sharing taking in to account the water salinity is Colorado River[10] flowing in USA and Mexico. The 1944 “United States-Mexico Treaty for Utilization of waters of the Colorado” allots to Mexico a guaranteed annual quantity of water from the river. The treaty does not provide specifically for water quality, but this did not constitute a problem until the late 1950s. Rapid economic development and increased agricultural water use in the United States spurred degradation of water quality received by Mexico. With a view to resolving the problem, Mexico protested and entered into bilateral negotiations with the United States. In 1974, these negotiations resulted in an international agreement, interpreting the 1944 Treaty, which guaranteed Mexico water of the same quality as that being used in the United States.
Already the water utilization in Krishna river basin is touching the maximum limit constraining the salt export to the Sea. Detailed study shall be conducted by experts to decide the minimum water needed for the salt export to the sea. India should learn from the bad experience of Australia in over exploiting the waters of Murray-darling River. Krishna Basin Authority in line with Murray-Darling Basin Authority shall be constituted by the Indian Government rejecting archaic river water allocations by the KWDT-2. Krishna Basin Authority should be headed by a panel of experts representing environment, irrigation, agriculture, ground water, geology, health, ecology, etc to protect the river basin area for its long term sustainable productivity and ecology.
In response to the special leave petition lodged by AP, Supreme Court directed the GoI on 15/9/2011 not to accept the KWDT - II final verdict till it is reexamined by it for any violation of Interstate river water disputes act 1956[11](amended last in the year 2002)[12]. AP is stating that it was made to lose 195 TMC out of earlier permanent allotments though it is given by KWDT- II draft award apparently 190 TMC additional allocation out of 2578 TMC dependability (average water availabity in krishna river). It means the net additional allocation to AP by KWDT-2 award is negative.
ANDHRA PRADESH
The State had a case for approaching the apex court, at least in respect of the height of the Almatti dam as it was the Supreme Court that fixed the height at 519.6 metres through an order, disposing of a petition filed by Andhra Pradesh more than a decade ago.
A major “mathematical error” identified by the government with the help of legal/technical experts is that it assessed the water availability in the Krishna “oddly” at 65 per cent dependability, that too covering a limited period as in the case of the Narmada. Hitherto, the availability in the Krishna is reckoned at 75 per cent dependability for a longer period (more than a century) in line with the standard formula adopted all over the world. [13]
KARNATAKA
The demand of Karnataka for 278 tmcft of water had been partially met with allotment of only 177 tmcft, the State had staked its claim for a reasonable 278 tmcft of water in ‘B' Scheme as over 43.8 per cent catchment area of the Krishna fell in the State. The Bachawat Commission in its recommendations on water-sharing under ‘A' Scheme in the 1970s said that during further adjudication, the issue of Karnataka getting a share of 50 per cent of the surplus water and Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra sharing the remaining equally should be considered. The tribunal had overlooked it,
Allocation for Karnataka was unacceptable because Andhra Pradesh was already using the unutilised waters released by Karnataka.
MAHARASHTRA
The Tribunal has decided to raise it to 524.25 metres. It is not in favour as it increases the risk of floods in Kolhapur, Satara and Sangli
Maharashtra had demanded that the computation of water availability be based on 50 per cent dependability, but the Tribunal fixed it at 65 per cent.