A case of troubled waters

The Andhra Pradesh authorities’s formidable plan to hyperlink the waters of the Godavari and Krishna has grow to be controversial.

Touted by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu as a “recreation changer,” the Godavari-Banakacherla undertaking goals to supply consuming water to 80 lakh individuals and guarantee a further 7.5 lakh acres of irrigated land. It’s estimated to price ₹80,112 crore and is anticipated to be accomplished in three years.

The Telangana authorities has protested towards the undertaking. Based on the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, if any State needs to construct a undertaking on any river in these two States, it should inform the Godavari River Administration Board and the Krishna River Administration Board in addition to the neighbouring State. Telangana argues that Andhra Pradesh took up the undertaking with out offering this info.

The division of water sources has been a supply of friction between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh ever because the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. Telangana, which is upstream, asserts its proper to make use of waters of the Krishna river for initiatives such because the Palamuru-Rangareddy Carry Irrigation Scheme, whereas Andhra Pradesh believes that these initiatives are detrimental to the movement downstream and would probably influence initiatives comparable to Banakacherla. Each Andhra Pradesh and Telangana discuss with the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, to make their case.

Recalling that the Reorganisation Act gives for project-wise allocation of water between the riparian States, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has additionally said that his authorities would put up a powerful case earlier than the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II for the allocation of Krishna river water to Telangana underneath Part 3 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act (ISRWDA), 1956. Telangana contends that the Apex Council arrange underneath the Reorganisation Act additionally supported the declare for allocation of water between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, as per Part 3 of ISRWDA.

Maybe anticipating such opposition, Mr. Naidu selected his phrases fastidiously whereas talking of the small print of the undertaking. He harassed that the Banakacherla undertaking concerned the “intra-State linking of rivers” and that the interlinking of rivers is the accountability of the Union authorities. He argued that as an aqueduct could be used to switch waters from the Godavari to the Krishna, there might not be calls for from different co-basin States of the Krishna river to share within the supplementation.

The undertaking might be taken up in three segments. The primary section includes diverting water from the Polavaram undertaking to the Krishna river. Within the second section, the federal government proposes to assemble the Bollapalli reservoir and switch water. Within the third section, water might be diverted from Bollapalli to Banakacherla, which would be the gateway to Rayalaseema.

Mr. Naidu urged the visiting Union Residence Minister Amit Shah on January 18 to assist Andhra Pradesh full the undertaking. He instructed the media that he had already mentioned the undertaking with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman throughout his go to to Delhi final December. The ball is now within the Central authorities’s court docket. If the inter-State water disputes are solved, Andhra Pradesh will be capable of take up the undertaking, which is vital to the State and notably to Rayalaseema’s drought-prone areas.

The Andhra Pradesh authorities has stated {that a} hybrid mannequin could be adopted for completion of the undertaking and would contain State and Central funding and personal partnerships. It clarified that the undertaking won’t be underneath non-public management and that the federal government will “pay annuity” to the buyers akin to toll collected by the street customers. There are apprehensions that the burden of the annuity might be handed on to the farmers. The federal government ought to clear the air on this difficulty earlier than going forward with the undertaking.

Whereas the State authorities has launched into this undertaking, 86 different irrigation initiatives stay pending in Andhra Pradesh. The standing on the Polavaram undertaking, which is taken into account the lifeline of Andhra Pradesh, stays unclear. If work on the Banakacherla undertaking begins, these pending initiatives in addition to the problems referring to the Polavaram undertaking are more likely to be on the again burner. Within the subsequent three to 4 years, discussions will in all probability centre across the Banakacherla undertaking.

subbarao.gavaravarapu@thehindu.co.in