Projects on Krishna basin

 Projects on Krishna basin

 Krishna Basin 

The catchment area in Telangana is 51,628 square kms and catchment in Andhra is 23,741 square kms. But the water allocation for Telangana is 266.83 TMC feet of water, whereas the Andhra gets 500.15 TMC feet of water as show in percentages.

The bar chart below shows clearly the catchment area, cultivable land and irrigated area on Krishna Basin.

Region catchment cultivable land irrigated Area 

Region	catchment	cultivable land	irrigated Area
Andhra	31.5%	62.5%	76.72%
Telangana	68.5%	37.5%	24%

PROJECTS:

Tungabadra:This project was first planned in 1948 near Hosepet as a joint venture of erstwhile Hyderabad State and Mysore State. Left canal of this project was planned to utilize about 100 TMC ft of water to irrigate lands in Raichur and Mahaboobnagar.

Rajolibunda Diversion Scheme: This project was started to irrigate 93,000 acres in then Raichoor district of the then Hyderabad State utilizing 17 TMC feet of water. It was started by the Hyderabad State and completed by 1956. Subsequent to the reorganization of states, 5900 acres ayacut fell within Karnataka State and remaining ayacut of 87000 acres fell within Andhra Pradesh State. The Chief Engineers of Karnataka and Andra Pradesh agreed for full supply discharge of 850 cusecs at head and 770 cusecs at the border point between Karnataka State and Andhra Pradesh State in 1959.

Krishna water dispute tribunal allotted 1.20 TMC feet of water out of 17 TMC feet of water to Karnataka State ayacut and the remaining 15.90 TMC feet of water to the ayacut in Andhra Pradesh State in 1980. It also gave directions that out of the 17.10 TMC feet of water allotted, 7 TMC feet of water would be in the shape of regulated discharge from Thungabhadra project in the lean months from January to May. Karnataka does not release even half the required flow to ryots of Gadwal and Alampoor taluqs of Andhra Pradesh State, despite a specific direction from the tribunal. The Andhra Pradesh did not show any interest to take up the issue with Karnataka.

The entire Mahaboobnagar district is drought affected, except for Mahaboobnagar taluq. The entire district lies in Krishna basin and it is at the head of the basin in the state. The present irrigation is confined to minor irrigation projects, a few medium projects and one existing major project namely Rajolibunda Diversion Scheme across the Tungabhadra river.

The Bachawath tribunal had allotted 17.1 TMC feet of water to Rajolibunda Diversion Scheme: 1.20 TMC feet of water to Karnataka and 15.9 TMC feet of water to Mahaboobnagar district. But in reality only 5 to 6 TMC of water is available for Mahaboobnagar district, though the availability of water from Tungabhadra is almost 15.90 TMC. Telangana region is deprived due to clandestine and unauthorized and illegal diversion of 6 to 7 TMC of water, with the tacit knowledge of the official.

Bheema Project: The Bheema project envisages the use of 20 TMC feet of Krishna waters for irrigating 2 lakh acres in the drought affected and upland areas of Makthal, Atmakur, Wanaparthy and Kollapur taluqs of Mahaboobnagar district.

Alternatively the water can be lifted form the Bheema River or Krishna River just below its confluence with the Bheema River and stored in the proposed balancing reservoir at Makthal to irrigate the areas.

Andhra Pradesh State committed in its note APPK 36 to take up a project across Krishna river five miles upstream of Gadwal meter gauge railway bridge with a gross storage of 33 TMC feet water and storage of 16 TMC feet water under stage I.  The irrigation would be flow irrigation of about 1.05 lakhs acres, and stage II could be a lift scheme to irrigate about 1.80 lakhs acres. The tribunal allotted 17.64 TMC feet of water to the project and work is taken up under stage I named Jurala Project in 1981. The water is yet to be made available to extensive areas of ayacut proposed.

Jurala Project Stage–1: This project envisages irrigating scarcity areas in Taluqs of Gadwal, Alampur and Wanaparthy in Mahboobnagar district. The erstwhile Hyderabad State had taken up investigations of 1930 for irrigating certain areas in Telangana region of the present Mahboobnagar District along with areas in Karnataka region, which merged with the Karnataka state after the states reorganization.

 In the 1st Stage there will be two canals :

 (1) The Right Bank canal will be about 17 miles along serving the areas of Gadwal and Alampur Taluqs in Mahaboobnagar district.

 (2) The left Bank Canal which will be about 36 miles serving Taluqs of Atmakur and Wanaparthy of Mahaboobnagar District. The total water requirement in Stage-l for the Right and Left Bank Canals is 16.80 TMC feet of water.

In second stage a pumping scheme to irrigate around 80,000 hectares is not implemented in spite of its commitment before the Krishna water dispute tribunal 30 years back in 1970. The government is not in a position to supply power to agricultural connections even 9 hours a day. Therefore there is no justification for pumping scheme specially in view of the fact, that an attractive alternative diversion scheme from adjacent Bheema river, where required flows are available. It would be much cheaper in construction and operation than the pumping scheme.

Kalwakurthi Lift Irrigation Scheme: This scheme was planned to lift the water at Khollapur on upper Sreesailam project in 8 stages in Nagar Kurnool. Kalwakurthi foundation stone was laid in 1990 and it has not seen any progress since. The government proposed to revise the project to lift water in three stages. The government was not interested to implement it and postponing the project on some pretext or the other.  The local leadership formed a group called: Kalwakurthi Jalasadha Samithi. They approached the NRI / NGO'S who had offered to finance 1800 crores for this projects. But the government has expressed its inability to accept the assistance on the ground that there is no sufficient water to lift from Krishna.

Pulichinthala Project: The implementation of this project will cause damage and adversely affect the farmers of Telangana. The Government is stating that it will supply additional water to left bank Sreesailam project and Bheema. Under this project about 45.75 TMC feet of water can be stored, which will irrigate only 2.7 lakh acres in Telangana where as it irrigates 14.00 lakhs acres in Krishna district. It is clear to see that this project will mostly benefit the Krishna delta.

The Government stated that by implementing this project only about 15,000 people would be affected in Nalgonda. But it is estimated that the project would submerge large areas in many parts of Nalgonda district. There are many questions lingering in the minds of Telangana people as to why the govt. is so keen to implement this project on priority basis when other projects in Telangana are not being implemented with the same vigor.

The High Court has issued notices in a writ challenging the action of the government proceeding with pulichintala project, without obtaining the clearance of the Union Ministry of Environment. It obviously indicates the haste by the Government in power to benefit the farmers in the upland areas in Guntur and Prakasham Dist.

The biggest injustice ever was done in the field of development and exploitation of water resources, and utilization of water resources for irrigation and drinking purposes from 3 rivers, Krishna, Godavari and Tungabhadra flowing from Telangana.

The biggest Nagarjunasagar Dam is constructed in Nalgonda district, which actually became a major source of irrigation in Krishna district. The Srisailam bank left canal to provide water for parched canals in Telanagana districts is still under implementation, whereas the right canal which feeds land in Kurnool and Cuddapah and Anantapur Dist is already completed and the downstream water from Srisailam Dam benefits Krishna District.