Hyderabad: The controversy surrounding the release of Krishna waters between Telangana and AP governments seems to be over for now, with the Krishna River Joint Management Board ordering the release of 6,000 cusecs per day for a week (roughly 3.4 TMC ft) from the Nagarjunasagar dam to the Krishna Delta to tide over the drinking water crisis. The Telangana government still needs to put its seal of approval on the orders issued by the in-charge chairman of the board.
“The file will be sent to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for his approval, but we may not object to the release for drinking water purposes,” said Telangana irrigation minister T. Harish Rao.
His AP counterpart, Mr Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao, has confirmed that the orders had been issued for the release of water starting from Wednesday.
Also Read: Water released from Nagarjunasagar dam won’t be sufficient for drinking
Reports from Nagarjunasagar said that officials had erected barricades, manned by the Special Task Force, at the entry points to the dam. The step was taken in view of likely protests from the people Telangana who may try to prevent the release of water.
The water release became necessary as several villages in the Krishna delta are facing drinking water shortage as the water bodies have dried up due to the prolonged summer. All the water bodies were full even in April; these are comparatively smaller than tanks in other regions.
Engineering-in-chief Muralidhar has said that strict vigilance would be maintained along the river to see that the water was utilised only for drinking purposes and farmers had been warned to not use it for irrigation.
