Bhubaneswar/Raipur: The Chattisgarh government believes that lack of data on the flow of Mahanadi waters into the river basin system is primarily responsible for the dispute with Odisha and that both the states should work together to conduct more scientific evidence-based studies on the subject.
In an exclusive interview to Orissa POST, Chhattisgarh Water Resources Secretary Sonmoni Borah said, “We recently signed an MoU with NERIWALAM to study the reasons affecting the flow of Mahanadi waters which will also look into other areas relating to the river so that we can get more scientific data on the matter.”
North Eastern Regional Institute of Water and Land Management (NERIWALAM) is an Assam-based organisation. Odisha government, too had earlier conducted studies — one by a high level technical committee headed by a former chairman of the Central Water Commission and another by the State Water Resource Centre Institute. However, both sides have been reluctant to accept the reports in their entirety.
The secretary also said that industries in Chattisgarh and barrages are not hampering the normal flow of water into Odisha and that most of the river water systems in the country are slowly being affected by natural processes, many of which are also global in nature.
“Industries in Chattisgarh are not the reason for any alleged change in flow of Mahanadi waters to Odisha. The whole river water systems in the country are slowly getting affected due to global and natural reasons. We have no intention to block the Mahanadi’s flow to Odisha”, he said.
When asked about the non-monsoon flow of Mahanadi water to Odisha, he said, “The main concern of Odisha had been the flow of Mahanadi during non-monsoon season. We take special measures like halting supply to local areas in Chattisgarh for farming more than required to ensure that the flow to Odisha remains constant down.”
The official also said that the allegation of not keeping Odisha in the loop for several projects in the catchment areas of Mahanadi were on account of their minor scale. Asked if Chattisgarh informed Odisha about the six controversial projects on Mahanadi, he replied in the negative.
“For every major project, the Odisha government was properly informed. But the laid down laws and guidelines do not endorse information-sharing on the minor projects. The barrages and projects that the Odisha government had been objecting to were all minor,” he said.