Panaji, Oct 5 (IANS): The 2018 award of the Mhadei Interstate Water Dispute Tribunal award is damaging to Goa, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Monday.

He also said that the state government would be filing a contempt petition in the Supreme Court on Tuesday against Karnataka for already diverting water from the Mhadei river basin, despite Goa's special leave petition pending before the apex court.

"The 2018 award was damaging to Goa," Sawant told a press conference.

He said that along with the contempt petition, Goa would provide evidence to prove that water was indeed being diverted from the Mhadei river basin through the Kalasa-Banduri canal, which aims to supply the water to the deficit basin of the Malaprabha river, ostensibly for drinking purposes.

The Mhadei river originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea at Panaji, after briefly flowing through Maharashtra.

The Inter-State Water Dispute Tribunal, set up by the Central government, after hearing the over two-decade-old dispute between Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra over Mhadei river water sharing, had, in its award in August 2018, allotted 13.42 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) from the Mhadei river basin (including 3.9 TMC for diversion into the depleted Malaprabha river basin) to Karnataka. Maharashtra has been allotted 1.33 TMC.

The Goa government had subsequently filed a special leave petition challenging some provisions of the award.