The Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) is a statutory, quasi-judicial body established by the Central Government in June 2018. Its legal basis is the Cauvery Water Management Scheme, 2018, which was notified under Section 6A of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956. The CWMA was created to solve the long-standing dispute over the sharing of Cauvery river water among the basin states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The Authority's primary objective is to implement the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT), as modified by the Supreme Court's judgment on February 16, 2018. The Supreme Court's verdict, which allocated 404.25 TMC to Tamil Nadu and 284.75 TMC to Karnataka, directed the Centre to frame a scheme for its implementation.
The CWMA's mechanism involves securing compliance and implementation of the water-sharing formula by regulating the storage, apportionment, and control of Cauvery waters. It supervises the operation of major reservoirs, such as Krishnarajasagara and Mettur, and ensures the regulated release of water by Karnataka at the inter-state contact point, Biligundulu. A key related institution is the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC), which was constituted along with the CWMA in 2018 and functions as its technical arm, monitoring reservoir levels and submitting recommendations on monthly water releases. In years of distress due to poor rainfall, the CWMA determines how the water shortage will be shared proportionately among the states. The CWMA replaced the earlier ad-hoc Cauvery River Authority to provide a permanent, independent mechanism for water management. The CWMA operates under the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti.