'All west-flowing rivers may face Yettinahole fate'

The Yettinahole project not only highlights the plight of River Nethravathi, but of all the west-flowing rivers which will face the same fate in the days to come.

It is a wake up call to the people of all the coastal districts in the State, said National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) (Surathkal) Professor S G Mayya.

Speaking to media persons here on Thursday, Prof Mayya, who is specialised in Water Resources Engineering and has studied the feasibility report, said that in the written reply submitted by Karnataka Neeravari Nigama Limited (KNNL), on behalf of the State government, it was stated that the people of Nethravathi basin cannot claim the right on Nethravathi water and that the people of riparian residents had no priority of rights.
It totally ignored the water problems in the coastal region, dangers to Western Ghats etc., he said.

“The detailed project report (DPR), prepared without feasibility report, is full of lies and a technical disaster. The yield was estimated based on unreliable private coffee planters’ rainfall data, deliberately to boost the water yield estimate. The organisations like National Institute of Hydrology (NIH) and Central Water Commission (CWC) were misused. The yield remains 24 TMC, though the rainfall in the catchments is 4,880 mm or 6,280 mm, which is strange. We have already argued that one cannot get more than 8 TMC of water from the project,” he said.

Promises
In the guise of providing drinking water to Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts, water from River Nethravathi is being provided to Bengaluru rural district and City as well.

“The government has already paid one per cent of the total estimated cost Rs 13,000 crore to contractors. The total cost of the project would reach up to Rs 60,000 crore and there will be no water. If we don’t stop the project, our future generation would curse us. It is painful to hear the misleading statements from politicians,” he said.