Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

Orissa government’s water resources secretary Suresh Mohapatra said: “We have information that the Chhattisgarh government is building a number of annicuts and not barrages across the upper stream of Mahanadi. We had taken up the issue. We found out that the annicuts would not pose any threat to Orissa.”

Mohapatra said: “Orissa will not have any problem even if the Chhattisgarh government builds 100 barrages. We are using only a small quantity of water from the Mahanadi river system. Mahanadi basin is a surplus water basin. In the last 25 years, the water flow has more than doubled. Only 30 per cent is used for irrigation purposes and 10 per used for industry. The remaining 60 per cent goes down stream. The water should be used purposefully.”

The government officials said the state government has been able to maintain the water reservoir capacity on the Hirakud reservoir by discharging excess water.

The water reservoir level in Mahanadi stands at 630 feet and it comes down to 590 feet in summer.

This is important as many groups oppose all kind of things in the name of lack of water in the Mahanadi basin and spread all kinds of misinformation. In general Odisha has plenty of water; what it lacks in many parts is proper distribution systems for this water.