Hyderabad: With there hardly being any rains and in-flows being negligible throughout the Krishna river basin, in addition to the fact that the water levels in the dams are falling, there are now concerns regarding the need to release more water for drinking as well as irrigation in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The Krishna River Management Board is meeting for the first time on Thursday with representatives of the two state governments. However, sources said there is no chance of ordering further release of water to Krishna delta, as is being demanded by AP due to the precarious water availability at Nagarjuna-sagar Dam. Similar demands have been made by Telangana as well.
“Thursday’s meeting as per the agenda that has already been circulated will be confined to evolving functions and operations of the Board in respect of the projects based on Krishna River and its tributaries. The Board will also assess the present storage situation across the basin,” said a source.
Two representatives from each state will attend the Board meeting as members. Principle secretaries of irrigation department and engineering-in-chiefs of the departments are already members of the Board.
However, according to AP irrigation minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao, the AP representatives, who will attend the meeting, will raise the issue of releasing waters to the Krishna delta both for drinking and irrigation purposes.
Telangana, through its irrigation secretary, has already sent a request to KRMB chairman A.B. Pandya to release waters for drinking purposes for both NS Left Main Canal and AMR (Alimineti Madhava Reddy) Lift Irrigation Scheme in Nalgonda to tide over the crisis.
“The Board has been placed in a difficult situation. There is no water available to meet irrigation requirements as of now. The Board is concerned about meeting drinking water requirements in the whole system. It cannot help if representatives whip up regional passions and demand more water,” an official from the Central Water Commission said.
