At a time when the two Telugu States are facing the drinking water problem due to lean inflows into the Krishna Basin reservoirs this water year, the three-member committee meeting of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) has decided to avail 14 tmc ft water available in Nagarjunasagar above 500 ft level for drinking needs of the two States.
According to Irrigation department officials, the river board has allocated 8.5 tmc ft water to Telangana and 5.5 tmc ft to Andhra Pradesh to meet the drinking needs till May-end. The meeting was chaired by Member-Secretary of the Board D.M. Raipure and engineers-in-chief of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana C. Narayana Reddy and G. Anil Kumar. It was also decided to have another meeting of the three-member committee in May to discuss the drinking water issue.
As of Saturday afternoon, the water level in Nagarjunasagar was 509.9 ft against the full reservoir level of 590 ft and the water storage was 131.5 tmc ft against its capacity of 312.5 tmc ft. A total of 6,846 cusecs outflow was recorded with Right Canal drawing 5,496 cusecs and Alimineti Madhava Reddy Project (Srisailam Left Bank Canal) drawing 1,350 cusecs.
