Yettinahole Project – seems like a ‘War for Water’ between Govt and Activists
Mangaluru: The government may have decided to ignore environmental concerns and go ahead with diverting water from the Yettinahole river to Kolar, Chikkaballapur and Bengaluru rural, but the fight to scuttle the project seems to be far from over. Activists who are against the diversion of the Yettinahole, a tributary of Netravathi, who have come together under one banner “Netravathi Rakshana Samyukta Samiti” to make their struggle more effective by indefinite hunger strike starting today (10 February 2017)
Ridiculing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s claim that the Yettinahole project had nothing to do with the diversion of the Netravathi river, these activists point out that Yettinahole was a tributary of the bigger river. Even though the government says the water will be diverted only during the monsoon. But is this possible? is the question activists are asking, saying that will the people of Kolar and other areas let go of their supply for the rest of the year?” The activists also say that the government was trying to hoodwink people and that the state was bowing to the contractors’ lobby backing the project.
Frankly speaking, this Yettinahole Project seems like a “War for Water” between CM Siddaramaiah/Karnataka State Government and the activists of this Samithi. But in the meantime the work on this project is going on a full swing, with mega excavators digging soil to make way for huge pipelines, and also work on the dam is almost nearing complete. Why I say this because I witnessed it during my couple of days stay at my friend’s estate in Sakleshpur during the weekend. The water pipelines were being laid a few yards from where my friend lives in his estate, and there had been a heavy movement of trucks passing by his house hauling mud or other equipment. I couldn’t resist myself in clicking some pictures so that our readers should know as to what progress is going on on this project.
But on the other hand, the Netravati Rakshana Samyukta Samiti has decided to go on indefinite hunger strike from February 10, if the Yettinahole river diversion project is not dropped, in which MP Nalin Kumar Kateel along with Kemaru Sandipani Sadhanashram, Sri Sri Sri Esha Vittaladas Swamiji, Satyajith Suratkal, Harish Punja, Raghuveer Suterpete, Dinkar Shetty, M G Hegde, Shashiraj Kolambe, Narayana Bangera, Siraj Adkare, Haneef, Kiran Rai Bajal, Dr Bharat Shetty, Pusparaj Shetty Bantwal, Harikrishna Bantwal, Monappa Bhandary and many others are taking part. Even the religious heads from various Mosques, Churches, Temples and political leaders have extended their support for this indefinite hunger strike.
As per the activists of the Samithi, they plan to go on an indefinite hunger strike until the project is put on hold since immediately they cannot withdraw the project but at least they can terminate the ongoing work for a while until a firm decision is made by involving experts and the concerned authorities. So while the activists are having their point pertaining to the Yettinahole project where they say that the people of DK will suffer once the water from Netravathi is supplied to other cities- and have planned this strike fearing that the project will dry up the Netravathi, but a senior professor of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, Prof. Sitharam who recently addressed media persons has come out with a project to save the river and its tributaries without abusing them in any manner. The professor also said that a proposal has been submitted to Chief Minister.
According to this professor, flood water from the Netravathi, between June and September, could be stored by constructing a reservoir in the Arabian Sea in the city by using available technology, including constructing breakwater. Later, it could be utilized for drinking and irrigation purposes. Breakwater technology had been adopted in Mangaluru earlier to prevent sea erosion. He also said that more than 120 tmc ft of flood water ran off to the sea every year from the Netravathi. Of that, 10 tmcft or 15 tmcft of water could be stored by building a coastal reservoir and the rest could be let off into the sea as flood water is compulsorily required for nourishing marine life. It could be built through public-private-partnership and it might cost between Rs. 3,000 crore and Rs. 3,500 crore.
The professor also said that Mangaluru required about one tmcft of water annually for a five-lakh population. According to him, building a small coastal reservoir just to store one tmcft of water was not viable as it involved pumping water out from the reservoir during the rainy season to prevent flooding. Of the four different possible schemes for building the reservoir available, constructing one outside the mouth of the river in the sea was viable. Prof. Sitharam, who is also KSIIDC (Karnataka State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation) chair professor in the area of energy and mechanical science at the IISc, said that the size of the reservoir could be decided as per the requirement which could also be extended in stages if more storage space was available. He also said that a flexible floating membrane could be fixed to the breakwater to prevent mixing of salt water with fresh flood water.
In conclusion, ever since this Yettinahole project took birth, it has been on pro and con situation, with activists and environmentalists opposing the project with their concerns an issues, while on the other hand there have been seminars/talks by researchers/ scientists who have talked in favor of the project, recently being a talk delivered by Prof. Sitharam. A quick conclusion has to be decided by the government and all those who are opposing this project- because one hand the government is still continuing in the project, while the activists are trying to stop it. Already few crores has been spent on the work done so far (see pics) and the work still continues, and for some reason due to the pressure of all these protests/hunger strikes etc the project is stopped/cancelled wouldn’t it be a sheer waste of citizens tax money spent already on the done work. Either the govt. implement the idea put forth by Prof. Sitharam or heed to the pressure of the activists in order to avoid further untoward incidents. The time is now to make a firm decision, if not this “War for Water” will go on forever. Finally, who knows will win the War- before few crores of hard earned money of the citizens has gone down the drain?