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hyderabad
Friday’s meeting convened by the Ministry of Jal Shakti mainly to discuss the impasse over the ‘occupation’ of half of the spillway area of Nagarjunasagar dam, currently under the management of Telangana under the provisions of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, by Andhra Pradesh from the night of November 29 assumes importance with the change of guard in Telangana.
There is a strong feeling among a large section of engineers of the Telangana Irrigation Department that the AP authorities had made the planned move to take over half of the Nagarjunasagar dam into their control at a time when the administration, including the police of Telangana, who were taking care of the project security as the AP police does in case of Srisailam, were busy in election duties.
“The dispensation in AP has not been happy with the Telangana authorities’ regular reporting of excess drawal of water by it (AP) from Srisailam and other systems to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and other bodies. The AP authorities have been pressing for handing over the projects to the river board from the beginning in tune with the gazette notification issued by the Centre/MoJS in July 2021,” a senior engineer of Telangana explained.
However, Telangana has been opposing the AP and Centre’s efforts on the ground that handing over of projects to the Centre in the absence of clarity on water shares of the two States would lead to more problems. After nine years of efforts by Telangana, the matter of adjudication of water share between Telangana and AP has been referred to the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal (KWDT-II) by the Centre recently.
“Telangana has been claiming at least 50% share in the Krishna waters allocated to combined AP (811 tmc ft) as ad hoc arrangement till the adjudication of shares by the tribunal based on the catchment area, culturable area within the Krishna Basin, population within the basin and other parameters which are considered while allocating water to riparian States,” another engineer of the Irrigation Department said.
The senior engineer also pointed out that the ad hoc arrangement of sharing in the 63.13:36.87 (AP:TS) ratio was agreed upon in 2014-15 with the condition to review it every year till the adjudication of share. In 2017-18, it was revised to 66:34 ratio and from 2020-21 Telangana has been demanding 50% share. However, KRMB has been apportioning water in the 66:34 ratio without Telangana’s consent.
Telangana has also been contending that AP has been drawing higher volume of water every year compared to its ad hoc allocation of 512 tmc ft every year and diverting over two-thirds of such water to the outside basin areas in complete violation of the KWDT-I Award, which is practically in force till date, the engineer explained.
Issues in Krishna water sharing and NSP impasse
Telangana has catchment area of 68.5% (52.23 lakh hectares) and water allocation of 36.9%
AP has 31.5% catchment area (24.02 lakh ha) and allocation of 63.1%
KWDT-I Award allocated 811 tmc ft assured water to combined AP
Combined AP administration re-allocated it among Andhra (512 tmc ft) Telangana (299 tmc ft) areas
The imbalance, according to Telangana engineers, is due to non-presentation of Telangana area’s case before KWDT-I in combined AP by the AP-heavy administration
Of the water allocated to AP, 69% is being taken to the outside basin areas by AP
The extent of cultivable area in the Krishna Basin is 37.12 lakh ha (69.8%) in Telangana and 16.03 lakh area (30.2%) in AP
Population within Krishna Basin is 2 crore (71.9%) in Telangana and 78.3 lakh (28.1%) in AP
From 2014-15, AP has been drawing more than its allocated share ranging from 64.2% (2015-16) and 72.09% (2022-23)
