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The federal system of governance provides specific autonomy and governance in states. India has a federal structure with a strong central government and for that reason, these disputes involve the central government intervening. The unitary system of governance provides for the supremacy of the central government. The Inter-State Water Disputes or ISWDs is a particular form of challenge that the federal governments in India face. As states have separate and unique borders and political identities, the flow of rivers and the basins through which they flow create problems in governance. Mahadayi water disputes tribunal, Vansadhara water disputes tribunal, and Ravi & Beas water tribunal are studied in the following sections.
Major Inter-State Water Disputes
Interstate rivers present a specific area of contestation since river basins are a source of shared resources. This political intervention happens at two levels- the union and the states and between other states. That is why the Mahadayi water disputes tribunal and other disputes have been looked at to better understand the issues.
Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal
The dispute of the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal is focused on the water allocation of Mahadayi between Goa and Karnataka. Here, it was proposed that Goa would get to use 24 tmcft, Karnataka 5.4 tmcft with Maharashtra 1.33 tmcft of the river basin. Karnataka had originally proposed that it wanted to use the water from the Mahadayi river to funnel it into the Malaprabha river under the project Kalasa-Banduri Nala. This was what had sparked off a dispute and had to be settled through the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal. The tribunal had only allocated around 40. 125 tmcft of the water from the river for consumption amongst the states through which the river flows. Karnataka, however, was not satisfied with the distribution of the water allocation done by the tribunal and went to the Supreme Court. On February 27th, 2020 the union government had allowed Karnataka to use 13.42 tmcft from the river though 8 tmcft was allotted for generation of power.
Vansadhara Water Disputes Tribunal
The Vansadhara water dispute was between Orissa and Andhra Pradesh over the waters of Vansadhara which was an inter-state river. Dispute on availability and sharing of water at Gotta Barrage and Katragada was also highlighted. Andhra Pradesh wants to construct a Neradi Bridge and link Nagavali with Vamsadhara to expand the Madduvalasa Reservoir project. The Vansadhara water disputes tribunal had grounds for negotiations but no conclusive results have come about. Orissa has also filed a complaint in Supreme Court in 2019, the verdict of which is still pending.
Ravi and Beas Water Tribunal
The dispute over Ravi and Beas was between Punjab, Rajasthan, and Haryana. It was first filed in 1986. Several disputes and protests happened after the partition, through the 1950s and 1960s. After the Ravi and Beas, Water Tribunal convened in 1986, it was finally stated that Rajasthan would have 8.60 MAF, Haryana would have 3.83 MAF, and Punjab would have 5.00 MAF, Jammu, and Kashmir 0.65 MAF, Delhi 0.20 MAF.
Conclusion
The resolutions provided by the ISWDs are a layered and complicated matter. Cases can be taken up to the Supreme Court but historically, it has limited intervention. Instead, it relies on Article 131 to help solve the matters through the tribunals. The River Basin Management Bill 2018 is an attempt to aid in the process of solving these water disputes.
