KRMB panel meet decides to avail Srisailam, NSP water only to meet drinking needs

On Monday, a three-member committee of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) concluded its meeting, deciding to share water from the Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar reservoirs exclusively for drinking purposes due to the El Nino conditions and low inflows into the projects. No agreement on the water-sharing ratio between the two states was reached.

The next meeting is scheduled for September 4 to decide the water-sharing ratio till June-July. The meeting was attended by KRMB Member-Secretary Satish Kamboj and Engineers-in-Chief O.V. Ramesh Babu from Telangana and K. Narasimha Murthy from Andhra Pradesh. As of Monday morning, the inflows in Srisailam were 206.67 tmc ft, and those in Nagarjunasagar were 75.6 tmc ft.

By Monday evening, the water storage in Srisailam stood at 166.7 tmc ft, and in Nagarjunasagar at 178.3 tmc ft, against their full capacities of 215.8 tmc ft and 312 tmc ft, respectively. The two states have been drawing 11,050 cusecs and 2,400 cusecs, respectively, for drinking water needs. Telangana has released water to Nagarjunasagar intermittently after hydel generation, while drawing 2,000 cusecs from it for drinking water needs.

Telangana has requested a 50% share in the available water since the population in Krishna Basin areas in the State is greater compared to Andhra Pradesh within the basin. However, Andhra Pradesh insisted on continuing the ad hoc sharing arrangement (66-AP:34-TG) even for drinking water needs.