HYDERABAD: Telangana Irrigation department contended that the consumptive use should be considered as 20 per cent of the drawal made for domestic and municipal water supply and the remaining 80 per cent water will flow back into the river system as return flow which cannot be measured.With the no consensus on measurement of Krishna waters released for domestic and municipal water supply at Krishna River Management Board’s meetings, State irrigation engineer-in-chief C Muralidhar wrote a letter to the KRMB member-secretary on Friday to this effect.
“The return flows of domestic water supplies are not discernable and need not be quantified separately. Hence, the return flows, whichever manner and whatever quantities, might join the river or tributaries over a period of time, those will be part of the yield of the river or tributary at that point and not to be explored and quantified as a separate constituent,” Muralidhar told KRMB member-secretary.
“Moreover, as per section 85(8) (a) of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, the KRMB and GRMB have to function having regard to the Tribunal awards, which leads to the inevitable conclusion that the KRMB shall implement the Clause VII of final order of KWDT-1. This Clause is so explicit the view of the States to arrive at ‘final view’ by the KRMB, except implementing it. In view of the above, it is requested to account only 20 per cent of water drawn towards domestic and municipal water supply as per Clause VII of the KWDT-1 final order in the overall water accounting of TS,” he said.