Telangana government has reiterated its demand for allocation of 50% share in Krishna water till the implementation of Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II (KWDT-II) award and has sought changes in the water management guidelines of Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar, the two common storage points of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
In a recent letter addressed to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB), Engineer-in-Chief (General-Irrigation) of Telangana C. Muralidhar stated that AP and Telangana had been availing Krishna waters in the 66:34 ratio as a temporary arrangement in the absence of any awarded sharing ratio since bifurcation of combined AP. However, it was 8 years since the bifurcation took place but the water shares were yet to be decided.
The ENC made it clear that Telangana would not accept the current ratio of sharing henceforth, till the implementation of KWDT-II, and wants equal share and also necessary changes in the river board’s protocols for water sharing from 2022-23 water year. He also requested the board to change the water management protocols of Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar reservoirs as per KWDT-I award and fix the minimum draw down level (MDDL) of Srisailam at 830 feet from the present 854 ft for supplementation of water to Nagarjunasagar.
Further, Telangana urged the river board to allow it make carry-over storage of 45 tmc ft for utilisation to the areas above Nagarjunsagar in lieu of diversion of Godavari water to Krishna Delta as allocated by the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal award. It also wants the river board not to allow 72.2 tmc ft supplies to Krishna Delta from Nagarajunasagar as 80 tmc ft diversion from Godavari and another 101.2 tmc ft from the catchment area below Nagarjunasagar is available to Krishna Delta.
Telangana also asked the board to re-allocate the 29 tmc ft additional water available to Krishna Delta to Nagarjunsagar Right Canal and allocate another 5.7 tmc ft water to Hyderabad from Nagarjunsagar.
It has also sought allocation of 40 tmc ft to SLBC (Srisailam Left Bank Canal), 40 tmc ft to Kalwakurthy lift irrigation scheme, 25.4 tmc ft to Nettempadu LI, 90 tmc ft to Palamuru-Rangareddy LI and 30 tmc ft to Dindi LI from out of 282.5 tmc ft water available in Srisailam after keeping aside 300 tmc ft for Nagarjunsagar, Hyderabad drinking water, Chennai drinking water and SRBC (Srisailam Right Bank Canal) out of total availability of 582.5 tmc ft as assessed by KRMB.
