Telangana faces severe drinking water crisis as reservoir levels plunge to 333 TMC ft

In mid-July, Telangana, including the capital city of Hyderabad and several rural habitations, entered a looming drinking water crisis due to depleted reservoir storage and declining groundwater levels caused by deficient monsoon rains and the El Niño effect. State authorities and Mission Bhagiratha are struggling to manage resources as major reservoirs rapidly approach dead storage levels, forcing some habitations to receive drinking water only once a week.

The state's 29 reservoirs, which feed 123 water treatment plants under Mission Bhagiratha, are the primary drinking water sources for rural habitations. These reservoirs currently hold only 333.44 TMC ft of water against a combined storage capacity of 1,059 TMC ft. This marks a steep decline from the 522.31 TMC ft recorded during the same period last year.

The water scarcity is particularly critical in north Telangana. The Sriramsagar Project has only about 3 TMC ft of usable water left above dead storage, while drinking water needs require nearly 0.5 TMC ft every month. Other reservoirs, including Lower Manair, Yellampalli, Kadam, Jurala, Nagarjuna Sagar, Nizamsagar, Singur, Koilsagar, Ramanpadu, Akkampalli Balancing Reservoir, Wyra, Udayasamudram, and Dharmasagar, are also experiencing critically low storage levels.

Hyderabad and several districts—including Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda, Khammam, Mahabubnagar, Kamareddy, Medak, and Sangareddy—rely on these reservoirs. Officials reported that water availability in Manjira, Singur, and the Godavari system is sufficient only until the end of September under current conditions.

Irrigation authorities have been instructed to maintain at least 16 TMC ft in Singur to protect Hyderabad’s drinking water requirements. However, the Singur catchment currently has enough water for only about 45 days, prompting officials to direct the preparation of alternative plans. State officials are conducting daily reviews of reservoir storage to assess water availability for the next 45, 90, and 180 days.

Groundwater levels have also deteriorated across the state. The average groundwater level in Telangana fell to 9.46 metres below ground level in June, compared to 9.26 metres below ground level in May.

In response, authorities are preparing contingency measures to address the shortage. These plans include supplying water through local sources, deepening and flushing existing borewells, hiring additional borewells, and constructing rainwater harvesting structures near Mission Bhagiratha borewells to assist with groundwater recharge.