Cuttack, Feb. 22: The Odisha government wants Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) to make provision for its own water reservoir in addition to the water intake system of the Mahanadi barrage at Jobra in Cuttack.
These provisions are for the company’s crude oil refinery and petrochemical complex, which is coming up in Paradip.
The state government’s department of water resources is of the view that IOCL should have its own reservoir near the plant in Paradip to utilise water during the dry period (three months in summer) as there will not be any water supply during that period.
This view was expressed through a written note on Tuesday by water resource department after Orissa High Court sought it’s assistance to resolve the dispute over construction of the water intake system on the Mahanadi river bed in Cuttack after the Nationalist Lawyers Forum had filed a PIL seeking judicial intervention against the construction work on the ground that it would pose as a threat to the city when the river was in flood.
The water resource department also wanted proper dredging of the pond area upstream of Mahanadi barrage at regular intervals to remove shoals. “Periodical maintenance dredging should be done in consultation with department of water resources. A corpus fund may be created from all industries including IOCL so that dredging activities and necessary improvement of the system can be met from this fund,” the water resource department stated in a note.
After perusing the note, the division bench of Justice Bimal Prasad Das and Justice Madan Mohan Das closed hearing on the PIL and reserved order. The court fixed February 27 for delivering judgment.
The verdict on the PIL would assume significance as construction of the water intake system for the Paradip refinery project had been stalled since the high court imposed restrictions on it in an interim order on July 29 last year.
Earlier, the high court had constituted a technical expert committee to study the possible impact of the construction of the water intake system at the Mahanadi riverbed in Cuttack to supply water through a pipeline for the Rs 29,777 crore Paradip refinery project.
The water resource department had given permission to Indian Oil to draw 40 million gallons of water per day from the upstream Mahanadi barrage subject to availability of water during the non-monsoon and dry period on the condition that “the industry will have to show clearly as to what storage facility the company will create for the lean period and to what extent and how water is going to be recycled”.
While observing that no such arrangement had been made till date, the technical committee had stipulated that IOCL should make arrangement for the storage requirement for the dry period and submit detailed report to the government.
“The committee is of the opinion that comprehensive study of water availability during different periods and demands for various purposes such as municipal supply, irrigation, power generation, ecological requirement, industrial and institutional requirement for the entire basin should be taken up keeping the State Water Policy in view. Any further demand for industrial purposes should be examined in consideration to the availability after meeting the previous commitments,” the report stated.
The report further stipulated that “IOCL should not be allowed to construct any further structure in the allocated area, except the intake well, pump house, sedimentation chamber and control room building”.
The committee, however, had ruled out any possible impact of the construction of intake well on the embankments on either side as well as course of river Mahanadi, irrigation supply in Mahanadi delta and ground water recharge in Cuttack city.
“There is surplus water available at the Mahanadi even after meeting present demands for irrigation, municipal supply and the committed industrial and infrastructure supply. Full drinking water requirement can be met from river Mahanadi on priority basis,” the five-member committee headed by retired chief engineer S.M. Patnaik observed.
