Karnataka ordered to release 3,000 cusecs per day to TN

The Cauvery Supervisory Committee on Monday ordered Karnataka to release 3,000 cusecs of water per day to Tamil Nadu between September 21 and September 30.

During a marathon meeting headed by Committee Chairman Shashi Shekhar, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu failed to reach an agreement on the quantum of water to be released. So, Shekhar, also Union water resources secretary,  asked Karnataka to release 3,000 cusecs daily to Tamil Nadu from September 21 to 30.

“Both the states have not agreed. The two states are free to challenge this order in the Supreme Court when it takes up the matter on Tuesday, or they can agree with the order before the court,” Shekhar told reporters after the meeting.The committee will meet sometime in October and take a call on the release of water to Tamil Nadu after the end of September.

In the meeting, Karnataka expressed its inability to release more water to the lower riparian states, saying the water available in its reservoirs was required for drinking purposes. Tamil Nadu has been demanding water as per the Cauvery Water



Dispute Tribunal’s final order. Shekhar said he arrived at the 3,000 cusecs figure taking into account the average inflow in all the Cauvery basin reservoirs in Karnataka for the past 15 days. 

At present, the inflow in the basin reservoirs in the state is around 9,000 cusecs per day. It may vary depending on the rainfall, he said. Shekhar said he had also considered the ground realities, including inflow, outflow to reservoirs, drinking water requirement of Karnataka in the coming days, deficient rainfall in the Cauvery basin areas in the upper riparian states, water requirement for crops and natural evaporation.

The committee will meet every month from February next year to take stock of the situation till the Cauvery Management Board comes into being. The matter related to the proposed board is pending before the apex court, he said.

The committee also agreed to put in place a protocol for the proposed real-time transmission of river water flow data at the committee secretariat (in Delhi), Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry.