HYDERABAD

A three-member committee of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) has decided to allocate 21 tmc ft water to Telangana for drinking water needs from Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar reservoir and 10 tmc ft water to Andhra Pradesh from Nagarjunasagar till August 15.

The committee comprising engineers-in-chief of A.P. and Telangana K. Narasimha Murthy and O.V. Ramesh Babu, respectively, and member-secretary of the river board Satish Kamboj reviewed the water availability in both the common reservoirs and decided to allocate 31 tmc ft water to the two member States for meeting the drinking water needs till August 15.

In its letter dated April 29, A.P. had furnished an indent for 10 tmc ft from Nagarjunasagar for drinking water needs till May-end. Similarly, in its indent dated May 2, Telangana had furnished requirement of 18 tmc ft water for drinking water needs — 13 tmc ft from Nagarjunasagar and 5 tmc ft from Srisailam till June 30. However, after 10 tmc ft allocation to A.P., Telangana demanded 16 tmc ft from Nagarjunsagar till August 15 to meet drinking water needs.

Telangana had placed the indent for drinking water needs in Hyderabad City, Nalgonda, Suryapet and Khammam districts. It has opposed any fresh allocation of water to A.P. on the grounds that it (A.P.) had already drawn much higher quantity of water compared to the allocation made to it and any fresh allocation would lead to drinking water crisis in Telangana.

As of Tuesday morning, the gross storage of water in Srisailam was 39.2 tmc ft and in Nagarjunasagar it was 157.6 tmc ft at 6 pm on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the 21st meeting of the river board to discuss other issues such as utilisation of water by the two member States during the 2026-27 water year, installation of telemetry equipment and other outstanding issues are likely to be discussed at the meeting to be held on May 14.

The meeting would be attended by Chairman and other members of the river board, Irrigation/Water Resources Secretaries and other senior officials/engineers of the irrigation/water resources departments.