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Is Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi misleading the people of the state about the status of the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal (MWDT)? On July 30, he announced that Odisha’s dispute with Chhattisgarh over its share of the Mahanadi River water, which has been simmering for more than eight years in the inter-state water disputes tribunal, will be resolved by Deepawali through mutual negotiations.

He made this observation after a meeting with his Chhattisgarh counterpart Vishnu Deo Sai and the Union Jal Shakti Minister, C.R. Patil.

But then a similar assurance – that the dispute would be resolved within three months – was given to the people of Odisha by both the Union minister and Majhi soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in the state in June 2024.

Since then, Pitambar Acharya, Advocate General, Odisha, has been giving the same assurance almost every month. More than two years have passed since the Majhi government came to power, but the issue remains unresolved and as contentious as before.

The tribunal itself has remained a mute spectator all this while. The question arises: what is the MWDT doing if Odisha is trying to resolve the matter through direct negotiations with Chhattisgarh, mediated by the Union government and its agencies?

Is this tribunal, constituted more than eight years ago on the directions of the Supreme Court, following an application by the previous Odisha government, a meaningless exercise? In that case, why did the governments of both states set it up at enormous cost to the public exchequer and then keep it running?

On April 17, 2018, the Union government handed over the Mahanadi dispute to the newly-formed MWDT’s first chairperson, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar (right), after the negotiations it facilitated “were not successful” and the Supreme Court ordered it to set up the tribunal instead. U.P. Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources Left), handing over the reference. Source: Press Information Bureau.

How the dispute arose

The history of the tribunal shows what a colossal waste it has been. The government of Odisha headed by Naveen Patnaik had first filed a complaint with the Union government under Section 3 of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act, 1956, on November 19, 2016. It said that the Chhattisgarh government was illegally preventing adequate flow of Mahanadi waters to Odisha.

The allegation stemmed from the Chhattisgarh government constructing six industrial barrages over the Mahanadi basin, which Odisha claims had a disastrous impact on the lean-season flow to Odisha, which lies downstream of the basin.

The reduced flows due to these barrages severely hurt Odia farmers and fisheries, according to both the government of Odisha and activists in both states. They say that it also severely affects the transportation of sediment and overall deltaic health. Coastal aquifers were damaged due to the lower freshwater discharge, and their salinity quotient rose.

However, the Chhattisgarh government has argued that these barrages are meant for harvesting monsoon rainwater and augmenting groundwater and do not obstruct the flow of Mahanadi water – though environmentalists and activists challenge and dispute this position. [we must publish their point of view – they claim huge dependence on this basin.]

After the Odisha government’s November 2016 complaint, the Union government engaged the Central Water Commission (CWC) and set up a negotiation committee that tried to mediate between Odisha and Chhattisgarh to find an amicable solution. But on September 17, 2017, the Union Jal Shakti Ministry said the mediation effort had failed.

The Odisha government had refused to attend any of the three meetings called for the purpose. Interestingly, the Union government had at the time asked the Supreme Court to direct Odisha government to........

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