New Delhi: While releasing his report on Mahanadi River, ‘Mahanadi Coal Rich, Water Stressed’ during an event here, Ranjan K Panda, a climate crusader, alleged that the state governments are using the river to take political mileage.
During a roundtable discussion on Mahanadi, Panda said that states only stoke this issue when they found political mileage in it. He further said that the governments rake up Mahanadi water issue during election times only.
In the study, Panda said that Mahanadi has already attained a ‘high scarcity’ status. The report shows that after all proposed obstructions, the total outflow from Chhattisgarh would be 16,211 MCM at a 75 per cent dependability level, while the current requirement for Odisha is 18,175 MCM, which excludes the minimum ecological flow that comes to 9,621 MCM.
The study further claimed that both the states are giving high priority to industrial allocation of water than irrigation. It said that there is no scope for participation of affected communities in the river basin management. In the coal belts of the river, people are forcefully evicted from their land, forest and water resources in the name of development and then have no participation in how these development projects work.
“The Mahanadi is gasping for life and with it the local communities. The governments have to integrate coal and the related woes into the dialogue if they are serious about resolving the conflict as well as keeping the Mahanadi alive and healthy,” he said.