VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday directed the Water Resources Department to strictly manage the State’s water assets in accordance with a structured Water Movement Plan, laying down a firm mandate that drinking water needs in both urban and rural areas must take top priority.
Reviewing the department’s operations at the Secretariat, the Chief Minister emphasised that given the current rainfall deficit across Andhra Pradesh, officials must deploy an immediate action plan to make the most efficient use of existing water storage in reservoirs, local irrigation tanks, and underground aquifers.
During the meeting, officials briefed the Chief Minister on the current status of key projects, noting that 89.9 per cent of the main civil works on the Polavaram Project have now been completed. Work is progressing rapidly on the crucial ECRF Gap-1 and Gap-2 earth-cum-rockfill dam structures, as well as on the Polavaram Left Main Canal.
Officials informed Naidu that despite recent heavy flood inflows of 14 lakh cusecs in the Godavari River, construction at the dam site continued smoothly without any major disruptions.
Setting clear timelines, the Chief Minister instructed officials to complete all balance works on the Polavaram Left Canal up to Visakhapatnam on a war footing by March next year. In the interim, he ordered the department to fill up all available water bodies, local tanks, and reservoirs along the route up to Anakapalli.
Naidu also directed engineers to ensure that both the Right and Left Main Canals are built to handle a discharge capacity of 17,500 cusecs, while suggesting that fitting names be proposed for both canals.
Furthermore, he instructed officials to execute infrastructure works, including access roads at the dam site, build up the surrounding area into a major tourism hub, and strictly protect the Gandi Posamma temple located near the project to respect the sentiments of local residents.
Addressing public criticism regarding water allocations to technology infrastructure, Chief Minister Naidu dismissed misleading reports about data centres consuming excessive water, clarifying that their total requirement is just 3.5 TMC. He urged officials to widely disseminate these facts among the public to counter false propaganda.
Reiterating the State’s allocation hierarchy — drinking water first, followed by industrial requirements — the Chief Minister advised agriculture officials to create awareness among farmers against planting irrigated dry (ID) crops during this deficit season.
Highlighting AP’s natural water advantage, Naidu noted that as a water-abundant state, Godavari River water can be effectively utilised to meet the requirements of both Uttarandhra and the Krishna Delta region. He suggested exploring the development of inland waterway transport routes connecting Visakhapatnam to Amaravati and ordered a comprehensive study on optimising the vast land assets owned of the Water Resources Department across the State.