AP seeks K’taka help to overcome water crisis

CM holds review meeting with irrigation Minister

• Chandrababu Naidu to meet Karnataka CM on Nov 4
• To request his counterpart to spare 32 tmcft water from Tungabhadra river for AP

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is likely to meet his Karnataka counterpart Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru on November 4 to discuss sharing of river water.

Naidu said he would request the Karnataka Chief Minister to spare 32 tmcft of water from the Tungabhadra high-level canal for use by Andhra Pradesh since the State faces shortage of water, official sources in the AP Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said here on Tuesday.

The AP Chief Minister held a review on irrigation with Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao and senior officials here on Tuesday evening.

Currently, there is a deficit of 78 tmcft of water in River Krishna as the level stood at 857 feet at Srisailam as on Tuesday. With no sign of more water flowing into the reservoir, AP government is concerned over meeting drinking water needs, especially Rayalaseema until the next summer.

Hence, the AP government decided to request the upper riparian state Karnataka to release 32 tmcft of water from Tungabhadra to meet drinking water needs, CMO sources said. At the review meeting, Naidu directed irrigation authorities to ensure better utilisation of available water from not only Krishna River but also from Godavari, Penna, Vamsadhara and Nagavali rivers to overcome any possible crisis.