Differences over Krishna water sharing between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States have cropped up again with the former writing to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to stop the latter from taking up power generation at Srisailam, to maintain levels in the reservoir for drawal of water for Rayalaseema needs.
In a letter addressed to the Member-Secretary of KRMB on Tuesday, Engineer-in-Chief of AP M. Venkateswara Rao alleged that Telangana was continuing huge drawals from Srisailam left bank power house beyond the quantity permitted by the river board and storing huge quantity in Nagarjunasagar beyond the needs for the next three months.
“The storage in Nagarjunasagar is sufficient to meet the requirement of both Telangana and AP for the next three months and since Rayalaseema has witnessed 49% deficient rainfall this monsoon season, there is urgent need to fill reservoirs and summer storage tanks for drinking water and irrigation needs of Rayalaseema,” the ENC said adding that it, however, would be possible only if proper water level is maintained in Srisailam and if water could not be drawn for Handri-Neeva and Pothireddypadu if the level slipped below 834 feet.
Further, the ENC of AP stated that 310.08 tmcft water has been released to Nagarjunasagar from Srisailam including 123.61 tmc ft from the left bank power house, managed by Telangana, 104.31 tmc ft from the spillway and 82.16 tmc ft through the right bank power house of AP.
The water level in Srisailam stood at 860.6 ft against the full reservoir level of 885 ft and storage was 107.97 tmc ft at 10 pm on October 10. Similarly, the level in Nagarjunasagar was 581.8 ft against FRL of 590 ft and the storage was 288.21 tmc ft.
AP faulted
When contacted, senior irrigation officials of Telangana faulted AP’s action of writing to KRMB against it and explained that AP had already utilised nearly 76% of water allocated to it for this water year and the water availed so far is 10% more than what it should have been by now. On the other hand, Telangana had utilised 34.1 tmc ft so far against its allocation of 82.5 tmc ft from Nagarjunasagar.
The officials said the proportion of Krishna water sharing in vogue is 63.13% and 36.87% for AP and Telangana, respectively. They also pointed out that AP had already availed over 110 tmc ft water from Pothireddypadu.
