Krishna Water Allocation Dispute

Context: Recently, The Supreme Court asked if the States of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka could amicably settle their quarrel over the allocation of the Krishna river water.
Dispute background

• The Supreme Court hearing was hearing the Krishna water dispute for the past two to three years.
• It has suggested ‘mediation’ to settle the enduring dispute over water-sharing between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
• Telangana submitted that there was no information forthcoming from Karnataka for the past 14 years about how much Krishna River water it had diverted.
• In turn, Karnataka had argued that a lot of water was going to waste and there was a need to harness it for irrigation and to replenish dry regions.

What is the Krishna river dispute?

• The Krishna is an east-flowing river that originates at Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra and merges with the Bay of Bengal.
• It flows through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
• Together with its tributaries, it forms a vast basin that covers 33% of the total area of the four states.
• A dispute over the sharing of Krishna waters began with the erstwhile Hyderabad and Mysore states.
• Later it continued between successors Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Course of Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT)
KWDT in 1969: In 1969, the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT) was set up under the Inter-State River Water Dispute Act, 1956, and presented its report in 1973.

• The report divided the 2060 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of Krishna water at 75 per cent dependability into three parts: 560 TMC for Maharashtra, 700 TMC for Karnataka and 800 TMC for Andhra Pradesh.

KWDT in 2004: As new grievances arose between the states, the second KWDT was instituted in 2004.

• It delivered its report in 2010 and made allocations of the Krishna water at 65 per cent dependability and for surplus flows as follows: 81 TMC for Maharashtra, 177 TMC for Karnataka, and 190 TMC for Andhra Pradesh.
• Andhra Pradesh challenged it through a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court in 2011.

Extension of KWDT

• In 2014, Andhra Pradesh got bifurcated to form Telangana.
• Andhra Pradesh has since asked that Telangana be included as a separate party at the KWDT and that the allocation of Krishna waters be reworked among four states, instead of three.
• After the creation of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh in 2014, the Water Resources Ministry has been extending the duration of the KWDT.

Maharashtra and Karnataka Response: Maharashtra and Karnataka are now resisting this move. They argued that Telangana was created following bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. Therefore, allocation of water should be from Andhra Pradesh’s share which was approved by the tribunal.

Road Ahead

• India is a federal democratic country gifted with many rivers that are the carriers of life-sustaining waters. The flowing river water across the state boundaries definitely constructs an efficient and impartial system for dispensing or allocating river flows is a significant, lawful and constitutional issue.