Cauvery Authority chief calls for better agricultural and water management practices, formation of river board to resolve dispute

Published 12 August 2026 · india

The Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) chairperson Saumitra Kumar Haldar has called for better agricultural and water management practices and the formation of a river

The Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) chairperson Saumitra Kumar Haldar has called for better agricultural and water management practices and the formation of a river board that will “own, operate, manage, and regulate” reservoirs in the entire Cauvery basin to resolve the vexatious dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over the sharing of the river water. In a conversation with The Hindu on Tuesday evening, Mr. Haldar said that after an initial forecast for the southwest monsoon, made in April, was not favourable, he had conveyed to the Cauvery basin States to “conserve the available water” and “use it judiciously.” Supporting the idea of curtailing water supply for irrigation in times of distress, he cited the decision of the Tungabhadra Board, the oversight institution for inter-State projects involving Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana, not to provide water for irrigation during this year’s kharif season.

In the case of the Cauvery, in a normal year, the yield had been assessed as 740 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) at 50% dependability. “This means that water won’t be available in five years out of a block of 10 years,” Mr. Haldar pointed out, adding that water on such occasions should be used only for drinking water, livestock and environmental flows and not for irrigation. As for the idea of the river board, the CWMA chief referred to the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT)’s recommendation for the constitution of an implementation mechanism on the lines of Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) “which is a basin authority, and not a regulatory body.” The Board, comprising representatives of Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab with the chief being appointed by the Union government, “owns, operates, manages, and regulates” projects.

“They [BBMB] take joint decisions with regard to how much water is to be given and what will be the scheduling. Everything is planned,” Mr. Haldar said. Explaining further, he said power generation, being carried out mostly at canal-head power houses, had to be matched with irrigation requirements and “they [BBMB] achieve synchronisation between irrigation departments and power utilities.” He also quoted the example of the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), a power behemoth of eastern India covering Jharkhand and West Bengal and owning power plants in the basin. “Once the DVC releases water, the States, which have their own canal systems, use it in a synchronised manner. “Such coordinated and comprehensive institutions - the BBMB and the DVC - would be “the most effective set up” for the management of a basin, the CWMA chief said.