Tamil Nadu Unites Against Karnataka's Mekedatu Dam Plan, Seeks Central Intervention

CHENNAI – The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on Friday unanimously passed a strong resolution rejecting Karnataka's proposed Mekedatu balancing reservoir project across the Cauvery River, further intensifying the decades-old inter-state water dispute. Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay piloted the government resolution, which garnered widespread support from opposition parties, including the DMK, AIADMK, Congress, VCK, PMK, DMDK, and the Left parties, signaling a united front against the controversial dam.

The resolution explicitly urges the Union government to withhold all forms of approval, including technical and environmental clearances, for the Mekedatu project. It also calls upon the Central Water Commission (CWC) not to consider or process Karnataka's Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the dam's construction. Additionally, the Assembly sought the constitution of a separate tribunal under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956, to adjudicate the Mekedatu dispute specifically.

Tamil Nadu's objections are rooted in the assertion that the Cauvery basin is already a 'deficit basin,' and its total available water has been meticulously apportioned among the riparian states by both the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) and the Supreme Court. The resolution emphasized that, given these established findings, no new project that would utilize additional water or impede the flow can be undertaken in the basin without the concurrence of all concerned basin states and approval from the Union government. Chief Minister Vijay stressed that safeguarding the state's water rights is a collective responsibility, highlighting that the resolution was moved to protect Tamil Nadu's rights over Cauvery waters, not to target any political party.

Karnataka's Mekedatu project, estimated to cost around ₹9,000 crore, involves building a balancing reservoir near Kanakapura in the Ramanagara district. Its primary objectives, according to Karnataka, are to provide drinking water to the Bengaluru Metropolitan Region and surrounding areas (utilizing an additional 4.75 TMC of water), and to generate 400 MW of hydroelectric power. Karnataka also claims the project would help regulate the required quantum of water released to Tamil Nadu on a monthly basis as per the CWDT award, as modified by the Supreme Court.

However, Tamil Nadu vehemently argues that the construction of this upstream reservoir would significantly reduce the natural flow of the Cauvery River into the state, particularly during periods of low discharge. This, they contend, would severely jeopardize the drinking water supply for millions of people across multiple districts and drastically impact agricultural irrigation, especially for the delta farmers. Concerns have been raised that if Karnataka were to store water upstream, it could potentially utilize Cauvery waters, affecting downstream availability, especially during water-scarce periods.

The Cauvery water dispute has a long and contentious history, dating back to agreements signed in 1892 and 1924 between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and the princely State of Mysore. After these agreements lapsed in 1974, the dispute escalated, leading to the constitution of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) in 1990 by the Supreme Court's directive. The CWDT issued an interim award in 1991 and its final award in 2007, allocating specific shares of water to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and Puducherry. Both states subsequently challenged these allocations, leading to a Supreme Court judgment in February 2018, which modified the tribunal's award and mandated the formation of the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) to implement the scheme.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly resolution emphasized that Karnataka's unilateral move to construct the Mekedatu dam without the concurrence of other basin states and without Union government approval constitutes a violation of these established legal and judicial directives. Opposition leaders like AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami reiterated his party's consistent opposition, recalling former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's efforts to halt the project.

Adding to the political efforts, the PMK (Pattali Makkal Katchi) has announced a 'Cauvery awareness yatra' (journey) to educate the public, especially the youth, about the dispute and the potential impact of the Mekedatu dam. The yatra will traverse from Biligundlu, where the Cauvery enters Tamil Nadu, to Poompuhar, where the river meets the Bay of Bengal, underlining the river's critical importance as an irrigation lifeline for more than 10 districts and a primary drinking water source for millions in Tamil Nadu. The collective stance from various political parties in Tamil Nadu underscores the gravity of the Mekedatu project's implications for the state's water security and agricultural economy.