Krishna River Management Board orders release of 10 tmc more water from Nagarjuna Sagar to Andhra Pradesh
HYDERABAD: At a time when the farmers of Telangana are struggling for water to save their standing crops, the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) on Monday ordered for release of 10 tmc more water from Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) to Andhra Pradesh to meet the drinking water needs of Krishna, Guntur and West Godavari districts under Krishna Delta System (KDS) in AP.
The 10 tmc water will be released between August 7 and August 18 to AP. As the net availability of water is just 9.001 tmc in NSP, the KRMB ordered release of 12 tmc from Srisailam to NSP to meet AP’s requirements. The net storage available at Srisailam is 96.279 tmc as on Monday. The 12 tmc included transmission and evaporation losses.The water will be released through power houses so as to derive power generation benefits in 50:50 ratio between AP and Telangana, the KRMB order stated.
These releases are in addition to 52 tmc water released for drinking water needs for AP and TS on July 27. But, the fact is that AP has been accused of diverting huge quantity of Godavari water through Pattiseema project for Krishna Delta System.Telangana has been contending that as per Bachawat award, it should be allocated 45 tmc extra water above NSP, as AP is diverting Godavari water to KDS.
But, surprisingly, KRMB allocated 10 tmc water for KDS. Telangana alleged several times in the past that KRMB was biased towards AP. However, today’s KRMB order stated that the order to release 10 tmc for AP has been issued after having a telephonic discussion with officials of both AP and Telangana on August 3.Officials of Telangana were not available for comments.
Earlier release
The Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) on July 27 released water for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for drinking water needs. Accordingly, Telangana got 30 tmc and AP got 25 tmc up to August for drinking water needs. The water will be released from July 28 to August 22