RIVER GODAVARI

RIVER GODAVARI :

River Godavari flows through Telangana region. Originally the proposal was to construct high Pochampad Dam across Godavari near pochampad to utilize nearly 330 TMC of water from river Godavari and also to lay Godavari north and south canals to irrigate about 20. Lakh acres of land to benefit farmers of Adilabad, Karimanagar, Warangal, Khammam and Nalgonda.

The catchment area under Godavari in Telangana is 61780 sq. kms about 79% and the catchment area in Andhra is about 16420 sq. kms i.e. 21% as against this background the cultivable area in Telangana under Godavari basin is 25.2 lakh hectares and in Andhra 10.7 lakh hectares should have been planned, allocating the available resources between Telangana and Andhra at the rate of 70% and 30% to Telangana and Andhra respectively, out of the available resources of 1480 TMC. of water. But the ground position is quite different as the allocation to Andhra area is 320 TMC of water, and in addition, the govt. has already projected plans for utilization of another 405 TMC water to Andhra region ignoring the right full claim of Telangana farmers. The S.R.S.R stage 1 started in July 1963 is still not completed, even after 36 years. Even if all the proposed or under execution projects are completed the total irrigated area under Godavari valley project will be about 7.10 lack hectares about 28% whereas in Andhra region the existing cultivable land under Godavari is 56.50%.

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

Region	catchment	cultivable land	irrigated Area
Andhra	21%	30%	56.5%
Telangana	79%	70%	28%

A reservoir on Kadam as a part and parcel of north canal and lower Manair Reservoir on south canal was envisaged.

Another project across Manjira near Devarkonda was also planned to utilize about 38 TMC water which would benefit the farmers of Manjira valley in Medak dist.

The Godavari valley Multipurpose project, Devnoor Project, was abandoned and execution of Thungabhadra left canal was not taken up so far.

The total water available for utilization under Godavari Basin is about 1495 TMC of water out of which only 270 TMC of water is being utilized in Andhra region and another 185 TMC water is utilized in Telangana. It is evident that proper planning is not done for development of backward areas in Telangana.

Water allocation under Godavari Basin as per various agreements between Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Karnataka, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh is given under the heading "Godavari Basin" allocating 1172-78 TMC of water but utilization of water was planned as 1479-65 TMC.