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| Gundia river formed of Headwaters of Yettinahole |
Today, Yettinahole Project to divert the west
flowing rivers in the Western Ghats towards the Eastern Plains of
Karnataka is on the table. Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Limited (KNNL) is ushering
it purportedly as a drinking water supply scheme to supply 24 TMC water to
Kolar and Chikkaballapur Districts. The scheme involves 8 dams in the Western
Ghats submerging pristine forests and 2 villages for its 250 kms long canals.
Two canals 80 and 50 kms long, raise the mains a reservoir that will submerge
1200 hectares of land will require a huge 370 MW of electricity to pump the
water.
Following misleading claims by KNNL, the
Project has escaped environmental impact assessment, environmental management
plan, public hearing, environment clearance and environmental monitoring, in
short appraisal by the Expert Appraisal Committee of the MoEF on River Valley
Projects, which wrongly concluded that it is a drinking water scheme. The EAC
expressed inability of appraising this scheme since as per current EIA
notification of Sept 2006, drinking water schemes do not require appraisal,
which by itself is wrong and shows how poor is our environmental governance.
This means a scheme with huge socio ecological costs will not need even an
Environmental Impact Assessment!
It is nothing short of a stab in the back
by the leaders of the region. The Yettinahole project, nothing but the Netravathi diversion project, the name changed
to hoodwink people, was given clearance in July 2012 when a man from the
district, DV Sadananda Gowda was the chief minister Later, in February 2013,
the Union Government as well as the Central Water commission cleared the
project. In this case too, Karkala man M Veerappa Moily who holds the vital petroleum
ministry, made no effort to stall the project but in fact supported it for the
sole reason that it benefits his home constituency of Chikkaballapur, at the
cost of his home district.
The project will be disastrous for the last
remaining biodiversity rich forests of Western Ghats and in any case it is not
the most optimum or the least cost solution for the water problem of Kolar and
Chikkaballapur Districts. The project documents reveal that less than a tenth
of the water to be transferred from Netrawathi basin is meant for these drought
prone areas even on paper. In reality, it is seriously doubtful if any water
will reach these areas. There is need for a participatory decision making
process involving all those impacted and those in whose name this project is
meant to decide indeed if such a project should go ahead.
A detailed analysis of the official 5
volume Project report from KNNL indicates that the MoEF has taken a wrong
decision. With the support of politicians across party lines such disastrous
schemes take off in this country. Who runs this clout? The role play of the
kids lingers in the back of my memory and the kids who put the display were
thoroughly clear in it.
While any sane person would support long
term and sustainable solutions to legitimate drinking water demands of drought
affected regions in Karnataka. The letter clarifies; Yettinahole Diversion
Project does not seem to be in line with that.
It is said that Water conservationists
Laxman and Rajender Singh have been requested to prepare a plan to rejuvenate
the Lakes of Kolar and Chikkaballapur. Their methods can bring life back to the
tanks within six to ten years while it takes 20 years to implement this project
at a whooping cost.
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| Artists of Mangalore expressing their protest |
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