Some Mission Bhagiratha Sources May Run Out of Water Within Months

Hyderabad: Tens of lakhs of people in Telangana could be facing a serious crisis of availability of drinking water in the coming months under the El Nino impact, with matters expected to become worse as next year’s summer season sets in.

The government is expecting to somehow meet Hyderabad’s drinking water requirements, at least partially, till next year’s monsoon season sets in, but the situation in rural Telangana is even more worrisome, sources said.

The Mission Bhagiratha scheme, backbone of water delivery in rural Telangana and for the 145 urban local bodies (ULBs), is expected to see its water sources slowly dry up with each passing month. The scheme, when fully operational, serves around 2.1 crore people in rural areas, and around 65 to 70 lakh people in the ULBs.

The scheme’s water sources, some of which do not have water to even last one to four months, were a matter of concern as finding alternative sources when these reservoirs or large water bodies reach their dead storage levels could be all but impossible. The Mission Bhagiratha scheme depends on 36 reservoirs of different sizes in the Krishna and Godavari basins. Of these, 14 are reservoirs in the Krishna basin, while 23 are in the Godavari basin.

According to government data on drinking water supply prospects over the next 12 months, seven of the 14 reservoirs in the Krishna basin – Udayasamudram, Palair, Ramanpadu, Gopaldinne, Rangasamudram, Wyra, and Sankarasamudram — serving parts of Nalgonda, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri, Mahbubabad, Khammam, Suryapet, Warangal, Wanaprthy, and Jogulamba Gadwal have water supplies that are expected to last anywhere between 46 and 292 days.

The seven others, which are expected to have water for another year, are Koilsagar, PD Pally, NS Tailpond, Jurala, and Srisailam, the last of which remains under the control of Andhra Pradesh.

In the case of 23 Godavari basin reservoirs, 10 have water for less than a year with Singur topping this list with the least amount of water left — just enough for 22 days of normal supplies as on Sunday. The others, which have storages enough from 38 days to 250 days, are Alisagar, Salivagu, Bheem Ghanpur, Medaram, Bellal, Dharmasagar, Chittakodur, Dummugudem, and Gaddenna Vagu. These serve parts of Nizamabad, JS Bupalapally, Mulugu, Warangal, Jangaon, Hanamkonda, Bhadradri-Kothagudem, and Nirmal districts.

The ones which have one year's worth of water are SRSP, Kadem, Komaram Bheem, Yellampalli, Mid/Lower/Upper Manair, Ramappa, Mulugu, Ghanpur, Kinnerasani, Mallannasagar, and Boli Cheruvu, according to the government data.