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Madei Madness: A Case Of Paid Experts – By Derek Almeida
Monday - Jan 9, 2023
Goa’s public posture of not sharing water from the River Madei with Maharashtra and Karnataka has always been based on a doom’s day scenario. That is, the river will dry up if the two neighbouring states are allowed to divert its water. Goa’s environment will be adversely affected. River navigation will be disrupted. Ingress of salty sea water into the river will completely destroy the fragile ecosystem. And so on and so forth.
What nobody tells us is how much water flows down the river. And how much is being diverted? At the hearings of the Madei Water Disputes Tribunal, several experts gave their studied opinion of the total flow of water in the river. And guess what? Each one came up with a different figure, even though they all relied on the same data. This caused the Tribunal to note, “The Tribunal is shocked and baffled to find that instead of reaching the same estimation of yield as arrived by the Central Water Commission, all witnesses (read experts) have given different figures of the yield of the Madei basin”.
The Goa expert Chetan Pandit reduced the value of discharge observed at the Ganjim site by 19%. A K Gosain (Karnataka) considered the data for a longer period. A K Bajaj, for Karnataka, adopted the report of Gosain without making any in-depth study. S N Huddar (Maharashtra) adopted the figure mentioned by the CWC but added the input from the Tillary basin (that is how his estimation is the highest). S T Nadkarni worked out the yield for various sub-basins of the river.
How did this happen? The answer is simple. The experts were hired by various states, and each tailored his report to suit the case of the respective state. This in turn made them “paid experts”. The Tribunal in its order noted that after the oath was administered, each expert was informed that he was an officer of the Tribunal, and hence he should do his best to arrive at a true and correct figure of water availability in the Madei.
The Tribunal noted, “The tribunal notices with pain that all the expert witnesses have failed to discharge their duties to assist the Tribunal in arriving at a correct figure of the yield of the Madei…,” and added, “It is well to remember that all expert witnesses are remunerated ones”.
If the conclusions of the experts are considered, the quantum of water in the Madei is as follows. Maharashtra — 208 tmc, Karnataka — between 202 and 206 tmc, Goa — between 145 and 154 tmc. The conclusions are clear. The experts of Maharashtra and Karnataka showed larger yields to claim a larger share of the water, while Goa showed a much lower yield to buttress its case for not sharing even a drop of water.
This scenario forced the Tribunal to make an assessment of its own after considering all existing data and the arguments of all states. And it came to the conclusion that the quantum of water flowing in the Madei at 75% dependability is 188 tmc. Given this scenario of conflict and lack of proper resolution, the Tribunal did not go into the process of complete sharing of the 188 tmc. Instead, is allocated water project-wise. So, Karnataka got permission to divert 3.9 tmc, Maharashtra was allowed to claim 0.56 tmc and by default, the remaining 183 tmc was allowed to flow into Goa.
So why is Goa crying hoarse when it got 97% of the water flowing in the Madei? And how will the diversion of 3% of the water dry up the river and undermine the environment? These are questions that all political parties in Goa and the government should ask themselves before burdening us with press conferences.
Comments (2)
Rupesh Pednekar
Tuesday - Jan 10, 2023
This govt is made up of all chors. The main leader of the chors was manohar parrikar and now we have another fake doctor chor as the leader of the crooks and terrorist RSS
MdG
Tuesday - Jan 10, 2023
First They Came- by Pastor Martin Niemöller
First, they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Ha ha ha ha h a, now they have come for water, which will turn North Goa into a desert. Karnataka will get it as it has 28 Lok Sabha seats, vs Goa's 2, majority always wins eh..in this case, Goa is the 'minority'?. The major impact will be on North Goa, staunch supporters of BAJPA . Where is their double engine or in this case triple engine Sarkar?
--This is the Gujurat Model or moden, where 90% Hondoos could beat up 8% Mamus and feel empowered and good about it. Under Modi, it's all about the domination or dictatorship of the majority. As all he wants is power, he doesn't care of North Goa(with his faithful dog-like supporters) is turned into a desert!!! As long as he gets power
H ah ah ah aha h a..sorry, I know this may sound mean but everyone in North Goa who voted BJP deserve this, ha h ah ha h ha ha
First, they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Ha ha ha ha h a, now they have come for water, which will turn North Goa into a desert. Karnataka will get it as it has 28 Lok Sabha seats, vs Goa's 2, majority always wins eh..in this case, Goa is the 'minority'?. The major impact will be on North Goa, staunch supporters of BAJPA . Where is their double engine or in this case triple engine Sarkar?
--This is the Gujurat Model or moden, where 90% Hondoos could beat up 8% Mamus and feel empowered and good about it. Under Modi, it's all about the domination or dictatorship of the majority. As all he wants is power, he doesn't care of North Goa(with his faithful dog-like supporters) is turned into a desert!!! As long as he gets power
H ah ah ah aha h a..sorry, I know this may sound mean but everyone in North Goa who voted BJP deserve this, ha h ah ha h ha ha