IWC organized a national convention on Rejuvenation of Krishna river

The Indian Water Council (IWC) on Tuesday resolved to foster collective action to save the rivers of India which are its lifeline, but fast depleting and dying. The council which organized a national convention on “Rejuvenation of Krishna river” here, adopted the “Hyderabad Declaration” marking the culmination of the day long deliberations that called for steps to ensure that the “land of the river belongs to the river and should not be used for any other purpose other than the river needs.”

The declaration also called for sparing Krishna river from sewer while encouraging joint action to restore environmental (natural) flow of the river. It wanted steps to ensure that the initiatives taken by IWC are respected and supported by people and governments.

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“We all agree to cooperate on the objective of rejuvenating Krishna river and to find negotiated ways to do this together instead of taking an adversarial position”, declared some 300-odd delegates and water conservationists, representatives of NGOs and different stake-holder organisations who took part in the national convention.“We accept that the annual availability of water in Krishna river basin is finite and the only way to optimise the water use and to make the most of it is to undertake all aspects of water use efficiency. It is high time the water use is reduced, recycled and reused,” they resolved.

One of the most important imperatives sought to be addressed was the disputes over water-sharing involving the river basin States. The most serious dispute that came up for scrutiny at the session was the river basin water being used outside the river basin. For example, about 100 TMC of water of Koyna river, a tributary of Krishna, was being diverted to the Arabian Sea after using it for power generation. The same would have helped in meeting irrigation and drinking water needs in the basin States in a big way had it been spared from diversion to another basin.

It was decided at the convention that all four States – Maharashtra, Karnataka,Telangana and Andhra Pradesh – should expedite the matter of resolving such issues with utmost urgency. All efforts must be made to resolve outstanding dispute through dialogue. The facilitation of four States Krishna River Basin Dialogue (KRBD) will help in accelerating this process and create an atmosphere conducive for amicable resolution of issues. The convention has appealed to the people of Krishna basin to come together and support the initiative rising above cultural and linguistic considerations, political and administrative limitations.The convention also appealed to the governments of the four riparian States as well as the Union government to cooperative with the implementation of the proposals incorporated in the Hyderabad Declaration-2018. The declaration wanted to develop a multi-disciplined and multi-sectoral understanding of the entire Krishna river and its basin to develop free flow of this knowledge across all borders to empower the basin community right from the grassroots level with due orientation to the task for policy making.

The convention also sought to ensure that the rights of the Krishna river, its tributary systems, supportive nature of cycles and the flora and fauna species (other than human species) of the basin are acknowledged.The convention also resolved to facilitate sharing of best practices identified from time to time in all the four Krishna river basin States, so that trans-border teams are formed to ensure mutual benefit while empowering each other and implementing sensitively the small and large projects in hand.The civil society in Krishna river basin and the government departments at all levels – Ministerial, departmental and Panchayat – will find sound basis for frequent and regular dialogue among the governments of the basin States, the declaration said.