INTER-STATE
WATER DISPUTES
have been, and are always, a serious headache in our
country, at times giving rise to violent conflagrations between the
ill-informed peoples of different provinces too [like the unfortunate Cauvery River Waters Disputes
between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka],
and have to be solved with utmost wisdom and delicate treatment. Now a disturbing
situation may emerge in the two Telugu States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana
over the several new irrigation projects announced by the power and publicity
crazy TRS government without even information to, let alone consultation with,
the neighboring AP, apart from in instances like the proposed Mallanna Sagar
project, giving rise to intense agitation in Telangana itself. As Wikipedia
reports, “Contrary to the political belief [“and chauvinist
propaganda” – one may add], Telangana … the Land of Dams, Reservoirs, Lakes,
Tanks and Canals … has the most number of Dams, Reservoirs, Lakes, Tanks and
Canals than any other South Indian state.” The National Register of Large Dams India, updated
2014-2015, gives the figures of 182 dams in Telangana (with
20 still under construction) compared to 151 in Andhra Pradesh (24 still under
construction).
This is sought to be augmented by a spate of fresh projects, even without any
Draft Project Reports prepared, and without even seeking the consent of the
Central Water Commission, etc. That A.P. has commenced and is continuing
certain projects in a like undesirable manner is no answer since a lower
riparian State generally poses no or insignificant risk to water usages in
upper riparian states. The AP Reorganization Act, 2014, [S. 84], moreover,
makes it incumbent on the Union Government to constitute an Apex Council with Minister
of Water Resources as Chairman and both the CMs as members, to consider and
resolve any such water disputes, which [seems to have] not been formed so far. Anyway,
two wrongs cannot right a thing and one has to mind that water, a ‘commodity’
becoming ‘scarcer’ with every passing day, has to be handled and shared in a tactful,
democratic and consensual manner between different states of India, a quasi-federal
polity, in which water sharing is generally viewed and judged in terms of
international water disputes resolution treaties/norms, among which the
relatively recent UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses
of International Watercourses 1997, sadly not accepted by India so far, can
serve as an essential beacon-light. §§§
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