Alamatti Dam Height Under Dispute

The government of Andhra Pradesh, today, complained to the Krishna River Water Disputes Tribunal (the Brijesh Tribunal) that Karnataka had wrongly reported the Almatti dam's benchmark height as 519.6 metres while it was actually 520.2 metres.

The tribunal, not happy with what it heard, asked the Karnataka goverment to submit their report of proofs denying the allegations by early May. Karnataka, not happy either, threatened to stop all work near the Almatti dam, thereby putting the food demands of thousands in peril.

AP Endowments Minister Gade Venkata Reddy has said that there will be another hearing on the 2nd and 4th of May over the issue.

The Alamatti dam, built over the Krishna river in Karnataka, is part of the Upper Krishna Project (UKP) in the Krishna river valley. Almatti is at the edge of Bijapur and Bagalkot districts, but geographically, it is included in the Bijapur district.

Its construction was supported actively initially by the World Bank, but aid to the dam construction had to be stopped at least twice due to poor rehabilitation facilities.

The dispute over the dam among the 3 states - Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra - dates back to the late 1960s. The Government of India had then constituted the Krishna Waters Disputes Tribunal in 1969 under the Inter State Water Disputes Act of 1956 to sort out the dispute. This was headed by R S Bachawat, a former judge of the Supreme Court. In 1973, the Bachawat Tribunal issued 2 Schemes - A & B - over the details of distribution of waters.

Now Karnataka proposes to raise the level of Alamatti to 524.296 metres. AP fears that once Karnataka raises the level to capture the excess waters of the river, they will not reach the command areas of Krishna valley dams in AP - including Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar, Jerula and Krishna barrage - thereby jeopardising the economy of AP's rice bowl.

Karnataka, on its part, has argued that the state had every right to increase the height of the Alamatti dam to 524.296 metres according to the sactions granted by the Planning Commission, and that Andhra Pradesh cannot object to it.