Intro

Growing demand due to industrialization and growing demand from

other sectors
o Issue will continue to rise
So need to evolve a coherent and certain method of dispute resolution
A stable dispute resolution mechanism is essential for interlinking and
cleaning polluted rivers

Problems in the present mechanism

Wholly unsatisfactory
Interstate river water disputes are palced under d-hoc tribunals set-up
under Inter State River Water Disputes Act, 1956
o Award need to be made enforceable thru political executive
unlike any other court
o Further vacancies delay the process
In absence of a certain dispute settlement mechanism, river water
disputes can spiral into ethnic and sub-national conflict

Solution

Amend the ISRWD Act

o Settlement should be in a time-bound manner and awards
should be binding on the parties with immediate effect
o No further appeal to supreme court be permitted as proceedings
will be on par with original suit between States before Supreme
Court

Conclusion

will be time bound and certain

leaving less scope for conicts over river water sharing to become
politicized
concerns of river water pollution to be addressed in a systematic way,
once states know the extent of their rights on water

At present, river water disputes are adjudicated under the provisions of the
Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 (ISWD Act). There are five

separate inter-state water

disputes tribunals functioning currently in India.
The present mechanism of adjudication has been criticized widely for three
chief reasons.
1. First, it is fraught with enormous delays which
occur at almost every stage.
2. Second, the adversarial nature of proceedings adopted by the tribunals
is divisive and does
not explore alternate avenues to resolve differences. It leads to one or
more parties losing when the final decision is arrived at. This in turn
makes ensuring compliance with the award
extremely difficult.
3. Third, the most difficult problem with the existing system is the fact
that there is no way to ensure the actual implementation of the
awards of the tribunals.

Punjab- SYL

Cauvery

Issue lingering for decades without sustainable solution

No matter is in SC

Current happenings

SC directs Karnataka to release water to TN for somedays

Violence in Bangalore and parts of Karnataka, curfew, arson