Narmada waters under-utilised

Madhya Pradesh is not fully utilising its allocated share of the Narmada water despite taking up several water resources projects, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

The Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) has assessed the utilised quantity of the Narmada water at the Sardar Sarovar dam site, on the basis of 75 per cent dependability, at 34,537.44 mcm.

It has allocated 225,11.01 mcm to Madhya Pradesh out of the assessed quantity of the Narmada water.

"However, at present, the entire allocated share of the water is not being fully utilised by Madhya Pradesh. In such a scenario, the remaining water is flowing down to the Sardar Sarovar reservoir," Minister of State for Water Resources, Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav, said in a reply.

The NWDT prescribes that surplus water should be utilised for generating power at the Sardar Sarovar river-bed power house.

"The NWDT has further decided that it is desirable that water, which would go waste without generating power at the last river-bed house, should be allowed to be utilised by party states to the extent they can," the minister said.

He noted that surplus quantities may be diverted to Rajasthan and Saurashtra for recharging groundwater.

A continuous retreat of glaciers may lead to marginal shortage of water in the Himalayan rivers, Yadav said in another reply.

But the phenomenon, he added, may be compensated by monsoon as the a major part of the glacier melt runoff is released between June and September.