HYDERABAD: With the water level in major irrigation projects on the Krishna and Godavari coming down ahead of summer, the government is working towards ensuring that there is adequate drinking water supply.
Irrigation officials have been asked to give preference to drinking water supply over irrigation. They were also instructed to maintain minimum draw down levels (MDDLs) in all major projects and reservoirs so that Mission Bhagiratha is not affected.
The situation in Nagarjunasagar is worse than in Srisailam on the Krishna river. Both these projects play a key role in ensuring Krishna water supply to Hyderabad and south Telangana.
Nagarjunasagar's full reservoir level (FRL) is 590 ft and gross storage capacity is 312 thousand million cubic feet. As on February 27, water stood at 550 ft and storage was 209.78 TMCs, against 572 ft and 263 tmc ft the same day last year.
Srisailam had water at 824 ft and storage was 43 tmc ft. This was better than a year ago, when the project had water at 803 ft and storage was 30 tmc ft.
Both the projects have witnessed steady decline in reserves as both Telugu states have been releasing water to generate electricity despite a request not to do so by the Krishna River Management Board.
On Monday, 29,241 cusecs were released downstream from Nagarjunasagar and 4,599 cusecs from Srisailam for hydel generation.
The water reserves in Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP), known to be the lifeline of North Telangana region, has also dipped over last year.
The SRSPs FRL is 1,091 ft and capacity 90.31 tmc ft. On Monday, the dam had water at 1,077 ft and storage at 46.45 tmc ft. This is lower than last year's 1,081 ft and 56 tmc ft.
With predictions that this summer could witness severe heat conditions when compared with previous years, the state government asked officials to monitor water levels in projects regularly to ensure adequate reserves for drinking water supply.
