Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy asked the officials to take up the issue with the KRMB and ensure that telemetry devices are used to measure the volume of water that Andhra Pradesh is taking out.
Published Feb 19, 2025 | 9:33 AM ⚊ Updated Feb 19, 2025 | 9:33 AM
Nagarjuna Sagar Dam. (Wikimedia)
Synopsis: The Telangana government has raised concerns over Andhra Pradesh’s alleged excess water withdrawal from the Nagarjuna Sagar Project. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy demanded the use of telemetry devices to monitor water usage and called for KRMB intervention. Telangana seeks a 50:50 share of Krishna water, challenging the current 66:34 ratio, while awaiting the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal’s resolution.
The Telangana government has woken up to the reports that its sibling state of Andhra Pradesh is drawing more water than permitted from Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) through its right canal.
At a review meeting on Monday, 17 February, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy asked the officials to take up the issue with the KRMB (Krishna River Management Board) and ensure that telemetry devices are used to measure the volume of water that Andhra Pradesh is taking out.
As summer advances, drinking water might become an issue going forward. There is a gradual depletion of water in Nagarjuna Sagar, and it could not have come at a worse time for Telangana.
As of Tuesday, 18 February, in Srisailam, the current storage is 81 tmcft against the gross capacity of 215 tmcft (37.88 percent). In Nagarjuna Sagar, the current storage is 185.54 tmcft of the gross capacity of 312 tmcft (58.5 percent), according to the Andhra Pradesh Water Resources Information and Management System (APWRIMS).
Recently, leveraging the advantage of Congress being in power in Karnataka, the Telangana government managed to persuade the Chief Minister of the neighbouring state, Siddaramaiah, and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar to release two tmcft of water from the Narayanpur dam downstream.
As efforts to augment the supply of water in the Krishna continue, the reports that the Andhra Pradesh government was diverting water from the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir to the detriment of Telangana’s interests came as a shocker.
Emphasising the use of telemetry devices, the chief minister asked the officials to bring pressure on the KRMB, as Andhra Pradesh has been opposing the use of telemetry devices, which is arousing suspicion that it was using more water than what has been permitted.
He felt that telemetry devices alone would prevent excessive withdrawal of water by Andhra Pradesh. The officials told him that the Andhra Pradesh government was not coming forward to bear the mandatory 50 percent cost for the procurement of the devices.
Revanth Reddy then told the irrigation officials to write to the KRMB that the Telangana government would bear the entire expenditure to be incurred on telemetry devices and ensure that they are installed.
The chief minister asked the officials to lodge a complaint with the Union government against the Andhra Pradesh government, drawing its attention to the diversion of water over its quota from the Nagarjuna Sagar Project and seeking intervention.
The Andhra Pradesh government is yet to react to Telangana’s charge that it was utilizing water over its quota from the Nagarjuna Sagar Project.
However, Andhra Pradesh Engineer-in-Chief M. Venkateswara Rao said after the January meeting of the KRMB that they would take a call after Telangana puts forth its proposal on which locations the devices should be set up.
Andhra Pradesh alleged that Telangana has been drawing more water than permitted from Srisailam.
The three-member committee of the KRMB, which usually meets ahead of the commencement of the water year, decides how much water each state is entitled to, depending on its availability, particularly for drinking purposes. But this time, the meeting is yet to take place.
Though the KRMB met once in January, it was mainly to get a consensus, which was impossible anyway, on increasing Telangana’s share of the Krishna waters, which Andhra Pradesh has been opposing vehemently.
This is an ad hoc arrangement, as the issue is before the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal, which has set in stone how much each of the two states is entitled to in Krishna water. The tribunal is expected to take up the issue soon.
At its governing body meeting in January this year, the KRMB decided that the three-member committee will allocate water between the two states for 2025-26. Both states presented their viewpoints on why they deserved an increase in the quota of what is being allowed at present.
The present ratio of entitlement to Krishna waters between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is 66:34. This is the ratio to which both states had agreed after the bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh as part of an ad hoc arrangement that was reached, pending resolution of the issue by the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal.
Andhra Pradesh insisted that there should be no change to the present ratio of the division of water, but Telangana sought a 50:50 apportionment. Atul Jain, the chairman of KRMB, assured them that the three-member committee would resolve the issue.
The arrangement is being made to ensure that there will be a dialogue between the KRMB and the two states on their requirement for water from time to time during the water year 2025-26.
A water year starts on 1 June and ends on 31 May the following year. After deliberations, the committee is supposed to decide on allocations depending on the availability of water in Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam.
Sensing a political opportunity, the BRS has gone for the Congress jugular, claiming that it was remaining silent without exerting pressure on the KRMB to call a meeting of the three-member committee to take a decision.
BRS leader and former minister T Harish Rao argued that calling a meeting is very important as summer has already set in, and very soon there might be acute drinking water scarcity in Telangana districts fed by the canals of Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam.
He said: “What are Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy doing when the Andhra Pradesh government is diverting Krishna waters at the rate of 10,000 cusecs per day through Nagarjuna Sagar Project’s right canal?”
“This has been happening for more than three months. In the current water year alone, Andhra Pradesh has diverted 646 tmcft of water. How come the Telangana government is not saying a word? Isn’t the government bothered about Telangana’s interests?” he asked.
He said that though only under the supervision of the CRPF forces stationed at the reservoir could the neighbouring state take water in its right canal after approval by the KRMB, it has been diverting water at will.
“Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects have almost touched rock bottom on account of the negligence of the Congress government,” he said and warned that a water famine might set in Hyderabad as well, as Krishna water is drawn for meeting the drinking water requirements of the residents of Hyderabad.
Since the first meeting in 2015, the KRMB has met 18 times, including the latest in January 2025. In the 17th meeting, held in 2024, Telangana raised the demand for a 50:50 share in Krishna waters.
Meanwhile, Telangana is looking with hope for an early finalization of its share of Krishna waters.
After the bifurcation of the state, an ad hoc arrangement for sharing waters between the two nascent states was made in 2015. The total 811 tmcft of water, which was originally allocated to the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal in 1976, has been split between the two new states, Andhra Pradesh and the newly created Telangana, in a 66:34 ratio.
The KRMB, set up under the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act, 2014, made the ad hoc distribution of the waters. As part of the agreement, Telangana will get 299 tmcft and Andhra Pradesh, 512 tmcft. The allocation was based on the extent of the command area, and it has to be reviewed year after year.
The Congress government in Telangana objects to this temporary arrangement and wants a fairer and more permanent solution for water distribution.
Meanwhile, the long-awaited hearing by the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal (Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal-II) on the sharing of waters is expected to begin soon. It will take up first, the hearing on the fresh terms of reference referred to it by the Union government under section 3 of the Inter-State River Water Dispute Act (IRWDA), 1956.
Even though the KWDT-II Award with clarifications was issued in 2013, a year ahead of the division of the state, making water allocation to the combined state of Andhra Pradesh, it did not come into force.
It allocated 512 tmcft to Andhra Pradesh from the 75 percent dependable flows in the river, as part of the total allocation among the then three riparian states — Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.
The KWDT-II award has not yet been notified, as Telangana had sought in 2015 a fresh tribunal to reassess the allocations, for which the fresh terms of reference were given to the KWDT-II in 2023 to decide on the share of waters between the two states.
The government has been insisting that Telangana is entitled to a larger share in the Krishna waters. It bases its argument on the catchment area. The government says Telangana should get an allocation of 555 tmcft as Krishna’s catchment area in Telangana is about 68.5 percent.
The then BRS government objected to section 89 of the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act, which favoured the distribution of water to the two states without making any allocations project-wise.
The Telangana government believes that if the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal (KWDT-II) first hears arguments in accordance with section 3 of the IRWDA, 1956, justice would be done to Telangana.
However, Andhra Pradesh has been insisting that the tribunal first hear arguments in accordance with section 89 of the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act.
The Brijesh Kumar Tribunal (KWDT-II) felt that since the sections of the two Acts differ on several aspects but overlap in others, giving a uniform order might create problems, and therefore, the arguments on the two sections would be heard separately.
As section 3 of the IRWDA deals with the allocation of waters between the two states, the tribunal felt it would be prudent to hear arguments on this provision first and take up arguments on section 89 of the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act for allocating water project-wise.
(Edited by Sumavarsha)
