Andhra Pradesh and Telangana set to clash at water meet

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are set to clash again at the Apex Council meeting of the Water Resources Ministry on August 5 over the sharing of Krishna waters.

The meeting is yet another round of discussions called for by the Centre to arrive at conciliation over the water dispute between the two Telugu states over the river waters.

Telangana has gone ahead and has warned AP against constructing the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Project aimed at drawing more water from the Krishna river.

Differences have been mounting over a period on the water discharge and entry pertaining to the utilisation of Pothireddypadu Head Regulator and K C Canal system as also regarding the diversion of Godavari water to Krishna Delta through the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Project, when huge quantity of water has been flowing waste into the sea from the Prakasam Barrage. Disagreement over volume of water drawn keeps persisting with the engineers of both sides keep airing the political views of their masters more and refuse to seek an amicable solution. Telangana has been arguing before the KRMB that the difference between the water drawn from Pothireddypadu and record was at least 18 tmcft, while their AP counterparts contend that it was only 3 tmcft. Past meetings also witnessed differences over K C Canal drawal with Telangana claiming that the drawal volume here recorded was 8.5 tmcft, while the AP engineers put it at only 2.26 tmcft.

There is also another contention of Telangana that Andhra Pradesh had already diverted 21.97 tmcft of Godavari water through Pattiseema in the past. Another contention of Telangana brought to the notice of the KRMB officials was the claims of AP that it had so far diverted 21.97 tmcft of Godavari water to Krishna Delta through Pattiseema project. The AP engineers argued that the volume of water diverted from Godavari should be deducted from their utilisation. "Their argument of water diversion, when a huge volume of water has been flowing waste into the sea from Prakasam Barrage, does not hold ground on any merit. Hundreds of tmcft water flows into the sea every year from Krishna," AP engineering sources say. However, there was some ground for reconciliation between the two sides in the matter of water flow in the Nagarjunasagar Left Canal that serves ayacut both in Telangana and AP.

The AP engineers stated that expected quantity of water was being received at the State border. It was decided to discuss the issues of disagreement at the next meeting.

Meanwhile, AP is understood to have submitted indent for 150 tmcft and Telangana for 79 tmcft for the next three months. A meeting of the board to discuss another contentious issue of the working manual is scheduled to be held on October 15.

The Andhra Pradesh government invited tenders for the construction of the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme. The NGT's southern Bench has recently cleared preliminary work on the scheme.

The government has issued a notification to accept tenders from Monday. Officials said the notification for the tenders was issued with the permission of the Judicial Review. The EPC has invited tenders to complete the work within 30 months at an estimated cost of Rs 3278.18 crore. It is said that the project is to lift 34,722 cusecs of water per day from the Srisailam Reservoir from a depth of 800 feet.