30 towns of states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are
moaning in the thirst of drinking water as the water levels have
dropped to the alarming level of 64 tmc feet in the two major reservoirs
of Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar. The Krishna River Management Board
(KRMB) has allocated only 4 tmc water against the requirement of 5 tmc
feet water to extinguish thirst of about one crore people in the Greater
Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits.
Every town has the dependency upon the fresh inflows in the left and
right canals of Nagarjunasagar which is further dependent upon both
sides of river Krishna. The release of water from Nagarjunasagar got
delayed as there was no water release from Srisailam dam. Agriculture
demand has also risen due to the ongoing Rabi season and farmers have
also started disporting water in every manner they can.
On January 10, 2017, there was a shortage of 6.16 tmc feet water from
the total available water as stated by KRMB officials. While AP claims
that it had utilised 39.75 tmc, and Telangana got 19.5 tmc in the month
of December. However, the attempts to curb the crisis can be made by
introducing Effluent Treatment Plants (ETP) and Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTP) on the large scale. The recycling of waste water became a necessity to tackle the drinking water crisis.
