With the major reservoirs on Krishna river such as Almatti, Narayanapur, Jurala, Tungabhadra, Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar still having a deficit of over 750 tmcft, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are getting restive over drawing water from the common reservoirs. And with the “powerless” Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) unable to arbitrate, governments in the two Telugu states are trying new strategies to overcome their drinking water and irrigation problems.
On Thursday, the two governments, putting aside the KRMB, decided to draw one tmcft each from Srisailam to meet the needs of Hyderabad and villages in Guntur and Prakasam districts in A.P. as an “ad hoc solution.”
The decision that emerged from the Irrigation Ministers and Secretaries-level meeting has not gone down well with field-level officials of A.P. who are at loggerheads with their Telangana counterparts on a daily basis.
A.P. irrigation officials feel that the KRMB has till now acted like a cushion between officials of the two States but if the board is kept out of the loop, it cannot do anything to soften the blows in future. They also feel that ignoring the KRMB will also weaken the case of the State that has been pressing the Centre to give the river board jurisdiction over the Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam projects as per the provisions of the A.P. Reorganisation Act.
Charge denied
The officials say there was no truth in their Telangana counterparts’ charge that A.P. was not cooperating in release of water to Hyderabad. It was the neighbouring State that has been uncooperative from the beginning.
Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to interstate division of the Water Resources Department K Gangadhara Rao said there were several occasions when Telangana totally ignored the orders of KRMB. Even on the few occasions it obeyed the orders, it delayed the release of water, Mr. Gangadhara Rao said.
Not only did the Telangana government not release water to A.P. it even drew more, denying A.P. its rightful share, he said.
The situation got so bad that KRMB Member Secretary Samir Chatterjee had to write to the Union Ministry of Water Resources to ask Telangana government to “stop further drawals through various systems for Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam projects as balance share of Telangana is exhausted and exceeded.” Andhra Pradesh was short-changed 7.7 tmcft on May 31, 2017, the last day of the water year.
