VIJAYAWADA: The state has written to the member-secretary of Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) seeking permission to draw drinking water for Rayalaseema and Tamil Nadu.
AP water resources department engineer-in-chief C Narayana Reddy said the government intends to draw water from Pothireddypadu head regulator at Srisailam through the Handri Niva Sujala Sravanti for drinking and irrigation needs of Rayalaseema region and drinking water supply to Chennai city.
Stating that Telangana has utilised 43.25 tmcft of water at Srisailam, 27.23 tmcft at Nagarjuna Sagar and 11.92 tmcft at Pulichintala reservoir for power generation without any indent or intimation to KRMB, he said the neighbouring state has utilised a total of 82.40 tmcft of water for power generation and urged the KRMB to account the same against its agreed share of 299 tmcft.
“Considering the ad-hoc arrangement to share water in 66:34 ratio between AP and Telangana respectively, and utilisation of 82.40 tmcft by Telangana, will give right for AP to use 160 tmcft of water for its drinking and irrigation needs,” Narayana Reddy said in his letter.
He further informed the KRMB about the present water levels at all three projects. The water level in Srisailam is 853.70 ft with storage of 88.47 tmc, Nagarjuna Sagar is 536.50 ft with 181.11 tmc storage, and Pulichintala is now at 173.71 ft with storage of 43.79 tmc.
“The Jurala project in Telangana and Prakasam barrage in Andhra Pradesh are receiving surplus water,” he wrote, adding that as over 4 lakh cusecs of flood inflows are expected into Srisailam reservoir, the KRMB should clear the indent to draw water for Rayalaseema and Chennai.
