THE Government of Goa has committed two strategic and planning errors which would have to be explained to the proposed tribunal. The first mistake was the failure to revive and remodel the abandoned Mandovi Irrigation Project (MIP) at Nanoda, Sattari.

 That decision emboldened the politicians in Karnataka who created an impression that the state of Goa has been wasting the Mhadei water resources during the monsoon. With no sign of reduction of sugar prices in international market, the politicians in Karnataka know that the future lies in bringing more area under irrigated sugarcane crop. So, naturally they would try to get as much water as possible from any available source to expand the sugarcane belt. The Nanoda site on Surla tributary of Mhadei is relatively close to Kalsa-Bhandura dam sites.
The second mistake was the agonisingly slow progress on hydroelectric projects in Mhadei basin. Despite the Dabos water supply project, Sattari is going to face a serious water crisis in future. Goa government backtracked on MIP because 350 hectares of forest area was likely to be submerged and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) refused permission from that angle. The MIP could have been redesigned as Mandovi Water Supply Project (MWSP) while taking care of minimal environmental damage because the hilly terrain of Sattari needs even smaller reservoirs for storages.
Hydroelectric Power: For the past 40 years, the Goa government has been talking about hydroelectric projects in Mhadei river basin without any visible progress. This has led to Karnataka government hijacking some of Goa’s original planning ideas to checkmate Goa’s plans to generate hydroelectric power. The best example is Goa’s failure to push ahead with Dudhsagar Multipurpose Project (DMPPP) and how Karnataka government turned the tables.
In 1971, the Central Water and Power commission (CWPC) prepared a report on hydroelectric-cum-irrigation and water supply schemes. Goa government showed interest in DMPPP. It was originally planned for nine MW power generation using a fall of 440 metres. The project needed interstate negotiations because Goa required a lease of land for 99 years within Karnataka to build the major dam and reservoir in a forest area. On October 18, 1972, a meeting was held between the Government of Goa and Mysore state.
Within a month, Goa government sought approval of Union ministry of Irrigation and Power to expedite the approval of DMPPP. In response, Dr K L Rao, who was Union Minister for Irrigation and Power held discussion with Goa government and proposed that more power could be generated if the water from surplus Kali river basin could be diverted to Dudhsagar. On his instructions, CWPC conducted studies and indicated that 56 MCM (two TMC feet) water from Kali river basin needed to be diverted to upstream of Dudhsagar reservoir to increase power generation capacity of DMPPP from 9 MW to 14.5 MW. Why not do the opposite, said Karnataka. The alternative was diversion of 84 MCM (three TMC feet) water from Dudhsagar River to Kali river basin for hydel power generation.
When CWPC investigated the alternative, it came to the conclusion that diversion to Kali river basin would generate only 12 MW of power. Encouraged by this finding, Goa raised the matter on July 24, 1973 in another interstate ministerial level meeting–the tone was persuasive. Goa said let us have the diversion of water from surplus Kali river basin to Mhadei. After generating 14.5 MW power the water would flow in Goa and would be used for irrigation and drinking water supply. Government of Goa also told Karnataka that the alternative proposed by it would result in waste of water running to Arabian Sea.
For the next six years there was no progress on DMPPP. So in December 1979, the Goa government wrote to Karnataka to grant 550 hectares of land in Karnataka for a 99 years lease for building a dam and reservoir. Immediately after he became the CM, in his first tenure, Mr Pratapsingh Rane again took up the matter with his counterpart in Karnataka in May 1980. That produced some results because at end of the month Power Minister of Goa and the Revenue and Power Ministers from Karnataka made a joint inspection of the proposed site of DMPPP.
An elated Goa government did not suspect at this stage that the inspection would trigger a radical shift in Karnataka’s overall strategy. In all sincerity, the Goa government sent the copy of a DMPPP project report to Karnataka on July 25, 1980. The suspense continued for almost a year. Then Karnataka government dropped a bombshell on April 2, 1982. The CM of Karnataka told the Power Minister of Goa that they were working on a plan to divert the water from Katla and Palna tributaries of Dudhsagar River to Supa reservoir in Kali river basin to generate power. For Goa, it was a shattered dream, a bitter lesson. The DMPPP had met a natural death. As a big brother, Karnataka had shown Goa its’ place.
Massive Let Down: Now Goa had another problem at hand–stop Karnataka from diverting the water of Dudhsagar River. That problem engaged Goa till 1990. Then there was another development. Without dropping its’ Dudhsagar river water diversion project, Karnataka proposed Mhadei hydroelectric project. Goa government received the copy of the project report on 31 July, 1990. Karnataka had opened two fronts in the interstate hydropolitical battle. It was an unequal fight. Goa had not thought of utilising hydropower generation potential in Sattari taluka despite a favourable terrain.
Goa’s politicians had let down the people. The period of political instability from 1991-2000 also saw planning process take a backseat. The government had made a mess of the microhydel (one MW) power generation project on Aravalem waterfall. The draft sectoral report, regional plan for 2011 AD submitted in March 2000 had mentioned that “the scope to create 36 MW hydropower potential by setting up hydropower stations in Goa is very good and potential sites need to be identified immediately”. Such projects would have lowered Goa’s carbon footprint. The state would have earned valuable carbon credits.
The National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) was engaged for carrying out a detailed survey and preparation of detailed project reports (DPRs) for setting up of small hydel projects in Mhadei river basin. NHPC identified 11 sites and a potential of 58 MW. All these projects would need mandatory environmental clearances. NHPC submitted the DPRs but the progress since then is very slow. Is the government serious to tap the hydropower potential of Mhadei basin? Then it needs to show the results to the proposed tribunal to justify its’ claim on Mhadei water resources. It is automatically implied that without unhindered and smooth flow of Mhadei river waters, Goa can not go ahead with any of the above projects (to be continued).