New Delhi/Bengaluru: The Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) has recommended Karnataka to release 1 TMC Cauvery water daily from July 12 to July 31 to Tamil Nadu.
The CWRC, in its meeting held on Thursday in New Delhi, took this decision and directed to release 11,500 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu daily till the end of July.
A team of senior officials and lawyers from the Karnataka State Water Resources Department argued that the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee should wait till July 25 to announce its decision regarding the release of water to Tamil Nadu. Four reservoirs of Cauvery suffer from the lack of inflow. The cumulative inflow into the four reservoirs of Karnataka from June 1 to July 9 is 41.651 TMC. The cumulative inflow deficit in four reservoirs including KRS and Kabini in Karnataka is 28.71 per cent.
At present the water storage in Cauvery reservoirs in Karnataka is 58.66 TMC. 4.905 TMC water from Mettur and 0.618 TMC water from Bhavani (total of 5.542 TMC) has been released into the river, and 24.705 TMC water is in three reservoirs of Tamil Nadu.
The Karnataka team urged CWRC to take an appropriate decision regarding the release of water from the reservoirs of Karnataka to Tamil Nadu after reasonable consideration of the present situation.
The Tamil Nadu government submitted its plea before the CWRC, saying, "In the previous water year, Karnataka did not release the water flow for the period of February 2024 to May 2024. In the current water year, rainfall conditions were normal and Karnataka received normal inflow. Therefore, Karnataka should ensure the prescribed flow in Biligundlu as per the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) order as modified by the Supreme Court," it demanded.
After hearing the arguments of both the states, the CWRC has recommended Karnataka to release one TMC of water daily till the end of July.
Commenting on the decision of the CWRC, Water Resources Minister and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said, "There is still no good rain in the state, so there is no water. Because of this, good water did not come to the reservoirs. There has been no rain to fill the lakes and reservoirs of the state. Let's pray for rain."
