State plans cloud seeding to stem crisis

Artificial rain in Cauvery catchment area to increase inflow into 4 dams

The Cauvery water-sharing crisis has prompted the Karnataka government to go for cloud seeding in the catchment areas of the river to increase the inflow of water into its reservoirs.

Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday said the tendering process would be completed shortly and the cloud seeding operation would be taken up in a week’s time.

“We hope cloud seeding will increase the water inflow in reservoirs and help the government in defusing the crisis that has arisen due to the release of water to Tamil Nadu,” he told reporters.

The Water Resources department has been in touch with scientists at the Indian Institute of Tropical Metrology, Pune. Based on their guidance, cloud seeding will be conducted at strategic locations where there are rain-bearing clouds. About Rs five crore has been set aside for the purpose, he said.

According to official sources, inflow into all the four reservoirs of Cauvery – the KRS, Kabini, Harangi and Hemavathi – has decreased over the last few days due to the absence of rainfall in the catchment areas.

‘State will suffer’

Currently, the inflow is about 10,000 cusecs. The State would face water crisis in the region if the outflow of 9,000 cusecs is maintained as per the Supreme Court order, sources said.

Currently, the four reservoirs together have a storage of 68 tmc ft of water. It is estimated that the State will require about 150 tmc ft of water for drinking and irrigation purposes. The basin region will be hit hard if the water flow continues to decrease, sources said.

The Water Resources department had invited a short-term tender for conducting air-borne cloud seeding in the Cauvery basin in August this year. But many parts of Karnataka received good rains soon after the government took up the tendering process, which it eventually dropped.

Now, it has been decided to revive the tender, sources said.
Chief Engineer of the Water Resources Development Organisation (WRDO) has been appointed the nodal officer for the purpose.

The WRDO is scheduled to open the tender on Wednesday morning. A three-member technical committee, set up to examine the technical bid, will go through the documents and finalise it. The financial bid will be placed before the State Cabinet seeking its approval, if necessary, sources said.