HYDERABAD: Telangana on Friday requested the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to restrain Andhra Pradesh from drawing any water from Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP). In a letter to the KRMB chairman, Telangana engineer-in-chief C Muralidhar said that Andhra Pradesh utilised 67.351 tmcft in excess of its entitlement and Telangana has to utilise 87.487 tmcft considering 50:50 water sharing between the two States. The drinking water requirement of AP from Srisailam for a water year is only six tmcft per year - four tmcft from Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi (HNSS) and two tmcft for Galeru Nagari Sujala Sravanthi (GNSS).
However, AP already utilised 14.414 tmcft from Pothireddypadu and 2.404 tmcft from HNSS for the period from June 1 to September 2, 2023, Muralidhar said in the letter. Moreover, the drinking water requirement of AP from NSP is 2.85 tmcft and it has already utilised 4.21 tmcft for drinking water needs from June 1 to August 16, 2023. In spite of excess utilisation, AP is still asking for 10.8 tmcft for the period between August 17 and September 30, Muralidhar said.
“It is also to inform that, AP has utilised around 40 tmcft of water in this water year from Penna basin storages for irrigation and the present storage in the reservoirs is about 100 tmcft requesting KRMB for diversion of Krishna water for drinking requirements in Penna basin which is completely unacceptable,” Muralidhar said. Since sufficient water is available in the reservoir, the requirements of Chennai Water Supply should be met from Kandaleru reservoir, Muralidhar suggested to KRMB. “It is to note that the AP diverted 123.44 tmcft water from Pothireddypadu during the last water year, i.e., 2022-23 in violation of the 1977 interstate agreement. Hence, KRMB is requested not to consider the indents raised by Andhra Pradesh, as this water year 2023-24 appears to be very dry.”