Rural Water Supply on Track Despite El Nino Hit Monsoon

Hyderabad: The ongoing poor monsoon season and lack of any significant inflows into reservoirs — small and big — on different rivers may be pushing surface-irrigation-based agriculture in the state into a crisis, but when it comes to drinking water supply, much of rural Telangana appears, at least for now, not to have reasons to worry.

“There is enough water in our sources and we can marshal them until September 2027. If necessary, we can even go below dead storage levels to draw water from the sources to maintain Mission Bhagiratha supplies,” a senior Mission Bhagiratha official said.

The key, however, to ensuring a drinking water supply to 127 urban local bodies, and 23,861 rural habitations spread over 95 Assembly constituencies is to save the available water for meeting only drinking water needs. For the most part, except for areas served by the Singur reservoir that is used to provide drinking water to the erstwhile Nizamabad and Medak districts, there should be no cause for any serious concern until September next year, according to officials.

Currently, Singur has around 4.5 tmc ft of water of which 2 tmc ft is earmarked for the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) which supplies drinking water to Hyderabad. The Mission Bhagiratha requirements are not as high as those of HMWS&SB’s, officials said. They are confident that even when water levels go below the dead storage levels, pumps can be installed to pump water for supply to villages and urban local bodies.

Elsewhere, other than occasional issues related to pipeline breaches, the situation is well under control as far as rural water supply is concerned, according to officials. For instance, in the erstwhile Khammam district, water can be drawn from Dummugudem, with backup supplies from Tupakulagudem, while in erstwhile Warangal, the Devadula lift irrigation scheme can help meet the needs. And as far as water for Nirmal and Adilabad districts is concerned, if no water is released for irrigation from the SRSP project, then drinking water supplies can be assured for at least a year.

With respect to drinking water supply in erstwhile Mahbubnagar and Rangareddy districts. Since Mission Bhagiratha depends on backwaters of the Srisailam reservoir, and can also use water lifted from the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme, While the Nagarjunasagar tail pond which holds 6 TMC ft of water, along with the Akkampalli balancing reservoir, and filling the Udayasamudram reservoir using water from Nagarjunasagar, supplies can be ensured to Suryapet, and parts of Nalgonda districts. And as far as Siddipet and Jangaon districts are concerned, there is 14 TMC ft of water in Mallanasagar currently which will be used to serve these areas, officials said.

The officials also said that even if part of the water from Mallannasagar is pumped to meet Hyderabad’s drinking water needs, there will still be enough water to meet rural drinking-water requirements under Mission Bhagiratha.

Infogrpah

Mission Bhagiratha rural water supply total annual requirement – 35TMC ft

Storage in important reservoirs serving Mission Bhagiratha

Godavari basin

Project – Current storage* – Total storage*

Sriramsagar project (SRSP) – 15.05 – 80.50

Sripada Yellampalli – 7.85 – 20.18

Singur – 4.53 – 29.91

Lower Manair Dam – 5.60 – 24.03

Mid Manair Dam – 7.44 – 27.55

Kaddam – Krishna basin Project – Current storage* – Total storage*

Srisailam – 41.89 – 215.81

Jurala – 5.33 – 9.66

Wyra – 1.896 – 2.523

*in tmc ft, as on July 15, 2026