A major water crisis is now staring at Telangana and Andhra Pradesh
states with the water levels in the important reservoirs plummeting
towards an all-time low. There are concerns that any further depletion
of the water levels in Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam dams will only yield
muddy water.
The Krishna River Management
Board (KRMB) has declared that these two major reservoirs have been
fully exploited and they will no longer yield water. Srisailam dam has
been fully drained out with its water level now standing at 789.5 feet,
only feet above the level of all-time low.
The
situation is more serious in Nagarjunasagar, where the level has fallen
to 506.7 feet due to the ongoing release of water for Alimineti Madhava
Reddy reservoir. KRMB has asked both states to utilise the water
judiciously given no immediate scope of any fresh inflows.
Normally
every year inflows into Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam starts only during
the second half of August or first week of September and that too only
if the monsoon is good. The demand for drinking water is growing with
rising temperatures in both states!
