This is the title given by a prominent national wide daily in English. According to the paper final judgment of the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal allowing Karnataka to increase the height of Almatti dam appears to have dealt a blow to Andhra Pradesh.
Though on paper the state was allocated the highest share of the waters of the Krishna river, irrigation experts pointed that the gain is notional as it has been worked out on the basis of an erroneous calculation of yearly river yields.
Finding fault with the tribunal's assessment of yields on the basis of 65% dependability (sure yearly river water yields in 65 of 100 years) spread over a “shorter period” of 47 years, irrigation experts said the verdict might spell the end of the second crop in the Krishna delta.
While the Bachawat Tribunal calculations were on the basis of yields of a longer period of 78 years at 75% dependability, the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal opted for 65% that has changed the dynamics of water sharing between the three states.
AP fought for 75% dependability with reckoning of the yields for 112 years in Krishna basin. At the same time, AP’s freedom to utilize surplus waters has been also curtailed and the limitation puts in peril seven ongoing projects built using 227 TMC at a cost of Rs 40,000 crore with an ayacut of 24 lakh acres. These include Srisailam Left Branch Canal, Kalwakurthy, Nettampadu, Hundri-Neeva, Galeru-Nagari, Valigonda and Telugu Ganga projects.
