The state government is “very disappointed” that the board has continued to maintain a 66:34 water allocation for the past seven years, despite the issue being raised at several meetings of the KRMB.
UPDATE – Fri 06 Jan 23 10:51pm
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Hyderabad: The Telangana government rejected the 66:34 share of Krishna water resources between Andhra Pradesh and the state for 2022-23, deciding in the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) upcoming meeting later in the month.
According to Telangana irrigation officials, the state government has lodged a strong protest with the Center to continue the 66:34 Krishna water sharing arrangement between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2022-23. The Telangana government is “extremely disappointed” that the board has continued to maintain a 66:34 water allocation for the past seven years despite raising the issue at several KRMB meetings.
Taking into account the 105 TMC requirements of the three operational projects (Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC), Kalwakurthy LIS and Nettempadu LIS), officials believe that the water allocation ratio for the current water year should be 50:50. The KRMB has ad hoc water sharing arrangements between AP and Telangana every year, fixed at 512:299 tmc ft (AP:TS) in 2015, then slightly revised to a ratio of 66:34 in 2017.
According to officials, the 66:34 ratio was only done for a year, and Telangana agreed after understanding that the Center referred the matter to KRMB for fair distribution, but the latter went ahead with the arrangement and refused to consider Telangana’s demand for a 50:50 ratio.
“By not considering the needs of the Telangana state government, the board has deprived it of its fair share of water resources,” a senior official said. Telangana had agreed to a 66:34 water sharing ratio after protests for 2021-22 on the condition that Andhra Pradesh not divert more than 34 TMC from the Srisailam reservoir, but despite the request, the KRMB allowed Andhra Pradesh to divert The waters were pumped far enough away to make their legal claim to 34 TMCs, the official said.
Interestingly, while Telangana did not accept the 66:34 split, Andhra Pradesh has already started asking KRMB to change the split to 70:30, but the board rejected it. Apart from raising the issue of water sharing at 50:50, Telangana officials will also raise the issue that water not used in one water year should be allowed to be used in the next year, only 20% of the water is used considering Hyderabad drinking water needs, real-time data sensors (telemetry) should be installed to accurately calculate the water consumption released by the Krishna project and Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme (RDS) modernization issues.
