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Injustice to Telangana as Maharashtra diverted 350 MCM from Krishna Basin
Highlights
Large parts of Krishna basin spanning Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are facing massive rainfall deficits, drought like conditions and crop failures. The tail-end reservoirs of Srisailam and Nagarjun Sagar are almost empty. Telangana is already thinking of conserving the available water for drinking water.
Large parts of Krishna basin spanning Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are facing massive rainfall deficits, drought like conditions and crop failures. The tail-end reservoirs of Srisailam and Nagarjun Sagar are almost empty. Telangana is already thinking of conserving the available water for drinking water.
River Krishna flows in Telangana for about 68.5% in the catchment area and 31.5% catchment in Andhra region. As per Bachwat Tribunal Award only 37% of water 299 TMC is allocated to Telangana region as against 68.5% (which is 555 TMC), whereas 511 TMC water is allocated to Andhra region. Only 27% of water is available for cultivable lands in Telangana. It means 50% of the Ayacut under Krishna basin in Telagana is not getting water.
Usually the allocation of water is based on the available water in catchment area and the land available for irrigation. Under the Nagarjuna Sagar Project's left canal, 161 TMC of water should have been allocated, but only 82 TMC of water is available for irrigation. By looking at the ground facts, it is obvious that how much disparity has been shown on Telangana region.
The Krishna water tribunal awarded 811 TMC of water for both states, while permitting tail end state to utilize the surplus water, but after prolonged discussions on utilization of surface water between AP and TS, it was agreed to utilize surface water in the ratio of 50-50 of the available water resources. In Andhra Region, for Telugu Ganga Project 29TMC, Sreesailam Right Bank Canal -19 TMC and in Telangana region for Sreesailam Left Bank Canal -30 TMC and Bheema Lift Irrigation 20 TMC.
Though allocation was made as above, so far the benefits are being accrued under Telugu Ganga Project and Sreesailam Right Bank Canal. These schemes are being implemented with World Bank Loan by merging Sreeramsagar Project in Telangana by showing it as AP II, AP III. The Sreesailam bank canal is yet to be completed, and Bheema lift irrigation project is kept under cold storage. The future development of ayacut in Telangana is mainly dependent on the development and execution of Godavari river basin
Besides this, the Maharashtra government is creating problems by diverting Krishna water and storing in koyna and Tata Dams for onward diversion to Konkan and down to sea.
In upstream Maharashtra itself, the Ujani dam has ZERO live storage and perennially dry Marathawada has the highest rainfall deficit. Shockingly, Maharashtra has diverted more than 350 Million Cubic Meters of water since onset of monsoon (at most conservative estimates) from this very Krishna and Bhima basins to the High Rainfall area of Konkan and down to the sea! If this diversion was stopped since July 1, when the signs of severe monsoon deficits in the three states were already there, this water would have been available to save crops in lakhs of acres in the river basin, and some of it would have also flowed to Telangana and water may have been available for saving some crops.
Even now these Koyna and Tata dams have 2535 MCM water in live storage that is reserved for diversion to Konkan and to sea, but won’t be release for the failing crops across the basin.
How can Maharashtra continue such wasteful use of water in a water deficit basin, at the cost of livelihoods of lakhs of farmers? Even now it is necessary to urgently review this situation and consider stopping diversion of water from Krishna basin to sea. This may save crops and livelihoods of lakhs of farmers under Krishna basin.
Kharif crop planting across majority of Marathwada has failed due to lack of water availability. And lakhs of farmers are staring at crop loss even after double and at places triple sowing. Some parts of Marathwada are still deploying tankers for drinking water supply since last year.
The westward diversion of water from Krishna basin to Konkan and further to sea is happening through the four stage Koyna Dam with total installed capacity of 1920 MW. These projects, as per the daily reports of Maharashtra Load Despatch Centre, generated 237.47 Million Units (MU) of power July 1 onwards.
As per Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal Award, Koyna is annually diverting 1911 MCM (Million Cubic Meters) of Water. So assuming proportionate diversion, Koyna project would have diverted 216.7 MCM.
Similarly the three Tata Hydropower stations (Khopoli, Bhivpuri and Bhira) with total installed capacity of 297 MW generated 118.89 MU of power during last four months as per daily generation reports of Maharashtra Load Despatch Centre. As per KWDT award, Tata projects divert 1413 MCM of water annually, so in the period under review, they are likely to have diverted at least 136.64 MCM on pro rata calculations.
These projects also have substantial water storage even today. Koyna dam has 1948 MCM water, which is 69% of its capacity and Tata dams have 587 MCM water levels, which is 52% of their storage capacity, compared to Ujani dam, Srisailam Dam and Nagarjunsagar Dams, all of them have ZERO water in live storage.
Ujani, Srisailam and Nagarjunsagar have ZERO storage in live capacity as per the latest CWC reservoir storage report. The collective amount of 2535 MCM of live storage water in Koyna and Tata dams can be easily released into the Bhima-Krishna basins that can benefit the whole of the River Basin, right till the tail end in Krishna Delta. This when the whole basin is facing severe water scarcity, it is the time for these three states to raise the issue in ensuing Parliament session Currently this massive quantity of 2535 MCM is stored for future diversions to sea via Konkan.
It is interesting to note that wind power generation in Maharashtra was 1378.1 MU, almost three times the power generation from Koyna and Tata dams that would have been forgone if the diversion was stopped. Moreover, as it well known during this period, the power demand across the country was so low that the Plant Load Factor of Thermal Power projects have come close to 50% from peak of over 80%, NTPC is talking about poor off take of power and the cost of power at power exchanges have come down below 2.5 per unit, from 7.5 per unit a few years ago. All this indicates that this loss of power could have been compensated, but there is no way to compensate the losses due to loss of water for the farmers.
It is high time to debate on the mindless practice of diverting water from a known water deficit situation, at least in such severe drought like situations and consider stopping this diversion when country’s power situation allows us to forgo the power loss from stoppage of diversion.
Even today the Koyna and Tata dams have 2535 MCM of water, reserved for release to the Konkan, as farmers throughout the Krishna basin see the crops suffer in front of them for lack of water. But the crops won’t get the life saving water from the Krishna basin.
In the interest of lakhs of farmers, the Telangana,Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh Government may bring this issue to the notice of Maharashtra government to review the situation and stop this mindless diversion of water from the water river basin to sea.
G.Rajendera Kumar
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