Mahanadi Water Dispute Leaving Odisha High & Dry, 15 Districts Staring At A Thirsty Summer | OTV News

Bhubaneswar: Be it the development of barrages over Mahanadi by Chhattisgarh authorities or negligence and the dearth of imaginative and prescient by Odisha authorities, the direct impact of a dry riverbed throughout the non-monsoon season has threatened livelihood of lakhs of individuals in 15 districts of Odisha.
Two photos of Mahanadi, one at Kalma in Chhattisgarh and the opposite one at Sukhasodha in Jharsuguda depict the actual story of one of many longest rivers of Eastern India over which each Chhattisgarh and Odisha have locked horns over sharing of its water.
The identical sort of bleak photos emerged from Sonepur and Hirakud as effectively the place the water degree of Mahanadi goes down at a steeper charge every passing day.
As per a report, a comparability drawn over the water degree of this time final yr revealed surprising statistics. While the water degree at Hirakud reservoir was registered at 626 Feet on February 1, 2020, this yr identical day it has dropped to 622 Feet. Similarly, on February 26, 2020, the water degree was recorded as 624 Feet at Hirakud whereas the identical has diminished to 618 Feet on February 26, 2021.
Priyaranjan Babu, an area resident of Sambalpur stated, “If the water level at Hirakud is not maintained then we will face severe water scarcity in the near future. The government should take immediate steps to address this issue.”
The Secretary of Hirakud oustees entrance, Gopinath Majhi stated, “Because of the Kalma Barrage at Chhattisgarh where the natural flow of Mahanadi has been disrupted, the downstream water at Jharsuguda and Sambalpur has reduced drastically.”
However, Odisha authorities’s admittance of the diminished water degree and impending water shortage in summer time has raised many issues about its intent.
On February 25, 2021, answering a query in Odisha Assembly by BJP’s Mohan Majhi, Odisha Water Resources Minister Raghunandan Das stated, “The water level of Mahanadi will reduce further in the coming years. However, out of the 15 water conservation proposals sent to the Central Water Commission (CWC), seven draft proposals have been returned back to us.”
“So out of the 23 proposed in-stream storage structures, we have decided to fast track 13 important projects on an urgent basis,” stated Das.
Adding salt to the wound, Sudarsan Das, Congress chief and Convenor of Save Mahanadi Movement stated, “These tribunals take a lot of time to reach a decision. Cauvery water dispute is a glaring example of how these panels resolve the disputes at a turtle’s pace. So the government should take alternative steps to address the issue.”