Telangana Government has requested the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to allow it to utilise 45 tmc ft of additional dependable water in tune with the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal award in lieu of Andhra Pradesh’s diversion of 80 tmc ft water from Godavari to Krishna Basin from Polavaram project.
In a letter addressed to Chairman of the river board M.P. Singh on Thursday, Engineer-in-Chief (General-Irrigation) of Telangana C. Muralidhar said that Telangana wants to utilise such water for Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project. He brought to Mr. Singh’s notice that Telangana has been requesting the Centre for the same for long and it has also written five times to the board.
As per the agreement of AP before GWDT in August 1978, the water in lieu of diversion of 80 tmc ft from Polavaram project to Krishna Delta system shall be utilised within the Krishna Basin and that too upstream of Nagarjunasagar or in Telangana. Further, in 2007 the then AP Government had enhanced the ayacut under SLBC from 3 lakh acres to 4 lakh acres without enhancing water utilisation correspondingly from 30 tmc ft to 40 tmc ft.
A State-level technical advisory committee of AP had recommended in 2013 that SLBC may be allocated 30 tmc ft assured water out of 45 tmc ft water available for utilisation above Nagarjunasagar in lieu of diversion of Godavari water from Polavaram project to Krishna Delta. The same committee had also recommended lifting of 16.5 tmc ft of water from the foreshores of Nagarjunasagar at Akkampalli to meet the drinking needs of chronically fluoride-affected areas in Nalgonda district and Hyderabad City.
Together, the water requirement of SLBC to meet ayacut and drinking water needs would be 45 tmc ft. The technical panel had also noted that the schemes like SRBC and Chennai water supply taken up along with SLBC were allocated assured water, although the in-basin SLBC was not provided assured water. Further, KWDT-I had also stipulated that inside basin uses should be given preference while allocating water for future needs.
