Telangana and AP Escalate Water Releases From Nagarjunasagar Canals

The ongoing dispute over Krishna river water sharing between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh escalated on Friday, with both states sharply increasing the volume of water drawn from the Nagarjunasagar reservoir. The tit-for-tat water releases, which began on August 26, intensified after Andhra Pradesh raised its outflow and Telangana immediately matched the increase.

On Friday, Andhra Pradesh increased releases from the Nagarjunasagar Right Canal, which is under its control, to 6,553 cusecs. It had initially begun drawing 2,000 cusecs on Wednesday. In response, Telangana stepped up releases from the Nagarjunasagar Left Canal to 6,650 cusecs, raising it from the earlier discharge of 2,000 cusecs.

Both state governments have maintained that their respective canal releases are necessary to meet the drinking water requirements of their populations. However, the competitive withdrawals have developed into a standoff at the reservoir, where neither administration appears willing to back down. On Friday, the total water stored in Nagarjunasagar stood at 181.929 tmc ft against its full gross storage capacity of 312.050 tmc ft.

Under a post-2014 bifurcation gentlemen's ad-hoc agreement, residuary Andhra Pradesh holds operational control over the Srisailam reservoir, while Telangana exercises control over Nagarjunasagar. Both sides have repeatedly accused each other of exceeding allotted quotas for the current water year. Telangana has alleged that Andhra Pradesh is overdrawing water from Srisailam, while Andhra Pradesh has claimed that Telangana uses hydel power generation at the Srisailam Left Bank Power House as a pretext to drain water down to Nagarjunasagar.

Alongside the stepped-up canal releases, Andhra Pradesh has approached the Union Jal Shakti Ministry demanding an immediate halt to Telangana's power generation activities at Srisailam. In its communication, Andhra Pradesh alleged that Telangana was utilizing around 40,000 cusecs from the reservoir and had already drawn more than 34 tmc ft under the guise of power generation despite requests to stop.

Andhra Pradesh stated that water at Srisailam must be conserved to secure drinking water needs for the upcoming months. The state also filed a grievance with the ministry regarding the Krishna River Management Board, stating that the board had failed to restrain Telangana from drawing water from the Srisailam reservoir.