Inter State Water Disputes in India

By Sudheer Sana

(CS10B050)

Contents

➢ Introduction

➢ Water Disputes present in India

➢ Constitutional Provisions

➢ Formation of Tribunal

➢ Case study : Krishna River Water dispute

➢ KWDT-I Award

➢ KWDT-II Award

Introduction

● India is mainly depends on Agriculture.

● There are Multi purpose projects and irrigation projects

constructed across the rivers for the efficient supply of water

for the agricultural purposes. So, the sharing of river water

resources plays an important role for the welfare of the

people.

What are Interstate water disputes ?

● Disputes arising among the states in sharing the river water.

Water Disputes in India

● Many river water disputes have erupted since

independence.

● As per the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956

(ISRWD Act, 1956) when the water dispute arises among

two or more State Governments, the Central Government

receives a request under Section 3 of the Act from any of

the basis States with regard to existence of water dispute.

The status of such inter-State water disputes under ISRWD

Act, 1956 is followed in the next slide

Source : Ministry of Water Resources, Govt of India

River(s) States Date of Constitution of Tribunal

Date of Award

Krishna Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh

April 1969 May 1976

Godavari Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa

April 1969 July 1980

Narmada Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra

October 1969 December 1979

Cauvery Karnataka, Kerala,Tamil Nadu and union territory of Pondicherry

June 1990 Febrauary 2013

Krishna Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh

April 2004 December 2010

Model/Mandovi/ Mahadayi

Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra

November 2010 Pending

Vansadhara Andhra Pradesh, Orissa

June 2009 Pending

Constitutional Provisions

● According to the article 246′s seventh schedule of the

constitution consists of three lists of subject matters.

1) Union List

2) Concurrent List

3) State List

● Water as entry 17 is in State List : Water, irrigation and

canal, water development and Storage are a state subject.

Constitutional Provisions

● Water as entry 56 is in Union List : Regulation and

development of water under the control of the union is

declared by parliament by law to be expedient in the public

interest.

● Article 262 explicitly grants parliament the right to legislate

over the matter in Entry 56 and also gives primacy over the

Supreme court.

Formation of Tribunal

● The water disputes arose among the two or more states, the

central government receives a request from the state

governments under section 3 of the Interstate River Water

Disputes Act (ISRWD) with regard to the existence of water

dispute.

● According to this act, first it will try to settle the problem with

negotiations with the states and later the central government

refer to a tribunal which consists of former supreme court

judges and they gives the final award to the central

government after proper studying of dispute.

Krishna River Water Dispute-History

● Krishna river is third longest river in India after Ganges and

Godavari rivers.It starts from Maharashtra flows through

karnatka and joins in Bay of Bengal at Hamasaladeevi,

Andhra Pradesh.

● This dispute was there since the colonial times and the

states are sharing the water resources based on the

following agreements.

● The 1892 agreement between the Mysore Princely State

and the Madras Presidency

● the 1933 agreement between the Hyderabad Princely State

and the Madras Presidency.

Krishna River

Formation of KWDT

● The state governments of Maharashtra, Karnataka and

Andhra Pradesh sent the requests to the central

government about the dispute in the sharing of the Krishna

water

● Central government set up a tribunal in 1969 under the state

water disputes Act 1956 to resolve the dispute

● This tribunal was headed by Justice R.S.Bachawat a former

judge of Supreme Court

KWDT – I

● Challenge faced by KWDT -I :

Estimating the dependable flow in the river

● For estamating the dependable flow, the data has to be

there for atleast 50 years. So they used stream flow data for

analysis.

KWDT – I Award

● The KWDT gave its award in 1973

● Tribunal report detailed two schemes

● Scheme A : this scheme pertained to the division of the

available waters based on 75% dependable flow of Krishna

water at Vijayawada

● Scheme B : this scheme recommended ways to share the

surplus waters

● For the final award scheme A was selected and published in

May 1976

KWDT – I Final Award

● As per this award, 75% dependable flow of krishna water at

vijayawada was assessed as 2060 TMC(Thousand Million

Cubic)

Allocation of Krishna water by KWDT among three states

State Allocation in TMC

Maharashtra 560

Karnataka 700

Andhra Pradesh 800

Total 2060

The KWDT addressed issues

● The KWDT had to treat already existing uses of river water

in the states and its classified three cutoff dates and their

corresponding uses as the following:

1) All projects in operation or under construction before 27

July 1951 were treated as ‘ protected use ’.

2)All projects commenced or completed between July 1951

and September 1960 were treated as ‘ preferential use ‘

3)Any project after September 1960 was treated as ‘ new use

’

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● Among these uses, the first two uses were deducted from

dependable flow while allocations were decided and KWDT

applied equal apportionment principles for the third use.

● There was another issue about Andhra Pradesh’s alleged

over appropriation of Krishna waters. The other two states

Maharashtra and Karnataka complained about the issue

and they want AP to divert Godavari river water in orders to

maintain the equity in the allocation of resources.

● The over appropriation of Krishna water for Andhra Pradesh

comes under ‘protected use’. So, KWDT doesn’t agreed the

statement of Maharashtra and Karnataka and refuses for

converting of Godavari water in its allocation.

The Almatti Dam Dispute

● It is part of Upper Krishna Project

● The Bachawat Tribunal stated that karnataka had proposed

to complete the Almatti dam in the second stage without

specifying the exact full height

● The central water commission had given clearance to build

the almatti dam to a height of 519m

● Karnataka government interpreted the Bacchawat award to

mean the full height of the project as it had proposed and

they increased the reservior level to 524.25m

Review of the KWDT-I Award & formation of KWDT -II

● KWDT – I provided for a review of its award after 31 may

2000

● No review was taken up for more than 3 years

● KWDT – II was constituted by Govt of India following the

requests by all three states in april 2004

● This tribunal started its proceedings from July 2007

KWDT -II Tribunal

● A 3 member tribunal headed by Justice Brijesh Kumar

● This tribunal gave its award on 31st December 2010

● The award is given based on 65 % dependability by

considering the past years data of flow of water

● This award is valid upto 31st may 2050

● This can be revised by a competent authority or tribunal in

the future time

KWDT-II Award

● The following table gives the allocation of water to the states

State TMC

Maharashtra 666

Karnataka 911

Andhra Pradesh 1001

KWDT -II Award

● This award not objected to the increased height of Almatti

dam from 519m to 524.25m, which increases the storage

capacity of the dam

● The head of tribunal asked the central government of India

for the establishment of “Krishna water Implementation

Board”

● This award directed all the states to contribute 3.30 TMC

feet of water by each state to Chennai city for drinking water

between July and October and 1.70 TMC feet distributed in

four equal instalments between January and April

Controversies on KWDT-II Award

Maharashtra

● Maharashtra is happy because they are getting 100TMC

more water than the previous allocation

● Raising the height of almatti dam is not good for them,

because it may increase the floods in Kolhapur, Satara and

Sangli

● Maharashtra had demanded that the computation of water

availability be based on 50% dependability, but the tribunal

fixed it at 65%

Controversies on KWDT-II Award

Karnataka

● They are happy with the award by KWDT-II

● Increment of Almatti dam height got accepted

● More TMC of water allocated than the previous allocation

Controversies on KWDT-II Award ● Andhra Pradesh

●This award allocated highest share of Krishna river to

Andhra Pradesh

●Not happy in the increased height of Almatti dam because it

can create problems in supply of water to the major projects

●Lagadapati Raj Gopal (Member of Parliament) from andhra

pradesh mentioned this problem in loksabha

●He mentioned there is no enough suppy of water from the

upper stream regions during the 2001, 2002, 2003 years

when the height of almatti dam is 519m

●Now KWDT – II award accepted the increased height of

Almatti dam and the state will have to be at the mercy of

upper riparian state Karnataka

Conclusion

● KWDT-II award can be revised by a competent authority or

tribunal in the future time

● No case can be filed against the award of the tribunal

● One more tribunal may form if Telangana state is formed for

sharing the Krishna water resources between the Andhra

Pradesh and Telangana

References

➔http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-12-

30/india/28266513_1_tmc-surplus-water-cent-dependability

➔http://www.nih.ernet.in/rbis/india_information/Krishna%20Water

%20Dispute%20Tribunal.htm

➔http://www.irrigation.ap.gov.in/kwdtaward.html

➔http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/krishna-

tribunal-grants-highest-share-of-waters-to-ap/article1018273.ece

➔http://swapsushias.blogspot.in/2011/08/krishna-water-disputes-

tribunal.html#.UnoOakNyScM

➔http://india-wris.nrsc.gov.in/wrpinfo/index.php?title=Krishna

➔http://wrmin.nic.in/index3.asp?subsublinkid=374&langid=1&sslid

=391

Thank You !!!

Any Questions ?