Telangana demands emergency release of 15 TMC water from Karnataka
- Earlier on May 1 last year too, Telangana had demanded 3 TMC feet water from Karnataka, but received only 1 TMC feet.
- The water level in the Almatti reservoir has gone down the recommended level of 510 TMC feet.
- Meanwhile flood monitoring officials said that there was meagre chance of inflows into the Almatti river that barely stood at 6,000 cusecs on Tuesday morning.
FollowOwing to the reduced inflow of water Almatti or Narayanpur reservoirs, the Telangana government has urged the Karnataka government to release 15 TMC of water on an emergency basis to water-hit areas in Hyderabad and fluoride-affected areas of Nalgonda district. Incidentally, the Almatti or Narayanpur reservoirs draw water from the Nagarjunasagar Project (NSP).
According to a report by The Hindu, the Telangana State Government and the Chief Engineer of the Nagarjunasagar Project, following a letter written by the authorities of the Hyderabad Metro Water Supply & Sewerage Board to the Karnataka government, pertaining to the water level going down below the minimum draw down level and the difficulty being faced in pumping water to Hyderabad.
According to a letter by the minister of irrigation- T.Harish Rao-the water level at the reservoir has gone down much below the required 510 ft. It has reportedly slipped further on Tuesday to 500.40 ft due to lack of inflows into the dam. The minister said in the letter, "We would be barely able to sustain drinking water supply without any inflows."Officials further said that muddy water was reaching the filter beds due to depletion of water level at the Puttamgandi intake point in Nagarjunasagar. The official said, "Seeking water release from Karnataka has become inevitable following stoppage of even meagre outflows into the river course from Narayanpur dam from 1 a.m. on Monday."
Last year, in May, Karnataka had released 1 TMC water at the behest of Telangana which had requested the state to release 3 TMC ft water. Meanwhile flood monitoring officials said that there was meagre chance of inflows into the Almatti river that barely stood at 6,000 cusecs on Tuesday morning.
