Panel for reservoir at Mekedatu to tide over City's water crisis

Apprehending severe water crisis in Bangalore in the near future, the Expert Committee constituted to assess long-term additional needs of water for the City, has urged the government to re-look at the controversial reservoir project at Mekedatu that was shelved earlier.

The 10-member committee headed by B N Thyagaraja, retired BWSSB chairman, submitted its report to the government in December 2011, suggesting short-term and long-term measures to tide over the crisis.

The panel is of the view that the reservoir should be constructed in order to meet the long-term water requirements of the water-starved City and to “regulate” the flow of excess Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.

“For long-term requirements, we propose construction of a reservoir of 53.08 tmc ft proposed by the Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd (KPCL) and the Water Resources Development Organisation, near Mekedatu or any other suitable place and earmark about 15 tmc ft of water to Bangalore for storage during good monsoon, as the Cauvery Tribunal has worked out the availability only with 50 per cent dependability. This will also help the State to regulate the supplies to Tamil Nadu from the proposed tail-end reservoir,” it states.

Karnataka can then stop releasing water to Tamil Nadu from Hemavathi, KRS and Kabini.

“We can definitely get 15 tmc ft of water from the surplus water to meet the needs of Bangalore City,” it adds.

Thygaraja told Deccan Herald the government would, however, need the concurrence of Tamil Nadu on the matter. “The intention of constructing the reservoir is to regulate the flow of water to Tamil Nadu. While stored water can be let to the neighbouring state in a regulated manner, water released from the KRS, Kabini and Hemavathi to Tamil Nadu can instead be diverted to Bangalore for supply of drinking water,” he added.

Sources in the BWSSB said the reservoir, if constructed, would provide a major reprieve to Bangalore’s water problems. Officials, however, said the KPCL, which had envisaged the project, had now backed out because of the environmental impact of the project.
They said even if the project were scaled down to “12 tmc”, it would be a “luxury” for Bangalore. Further, they said the reservoir cannot be constructed anywhere else, because of lack of availability of land in and around Bangalore.

The KPCL doesn’t seem too forthcoming on the project. It had proposed the hydro-electric project at Mekedatu near Sangam in Kollegal taluk of Chamarajnagar district in 1996 with a storage reservoir of 54 tmc ft and a power generation plant of 360MW in two stages. The project had earmarked 16.10 tmc ft of water for Bangalore in the proposed storage. The power project was planned jointly with Tamil Nadu.

When the Committee wrote to KPCL seeking the status of the project, the corporation, in a letter dated May 2, 2011, wrote back stating that the project was not furthered because the award of the Tribunal was challenged in the Supreme Court.
Dissatisfied, the committee wrote to KPCL seeking further clarification. On September 19, 2011, KPCL replied stating that the detailed project report submitted to the Central Electricity Authority for Techno Electrical Clearance was returned due to inter-state disputes.

Also, no environmental clearance was obtained for construction of the reservoir since a portion of it is located in the forest area.

KPCL also wrote that the proposed reservoir has to be constructed by the government and that only the power generation part will be taken up by KPCL.

5445 ha will get submerged

When contacted, KPCL officials maintained that the project would not be feasible, because of the environment damage that it would cause. Concurring with the fact that a reservoir was the need of the hour to meet Bangalore’s water needs, officials said the Mekedatu project would be detrimental to the environment. They said they haven’t even prepared a project report.

The Expert Committee was constituted in October 2010. The committee began its work in August 2011 and submitted its recommendations to the government in December.