Telangana water crisis: BRS, Congress trade blame for being unprepared

As a severe water crisis and drought-like conditions loom over Hyderabad and the rest of Telangana, the Congress and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) are shifting blame for not preparing adequately for such a crisis. 

The Congress is blaming BRS for modifying and thereby delaying the Kaleshwaram irrigation project, saying it could have  reduced farmers’ vulnerability to deficit rainfall if completed as per the original plan. The BRS on the other hand, claims that the Revanth Reddy government is not utilising infrastructure built when K Chandrashekar Rao was the chief minister, simply to deny him credit. 

For many weeks now, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has been sounding the alarm over an impending water and power crisis in Telangana, attributing it to the El Niño weather phenomenon that has led to a rainfall deficit and unusually high temperatures. He has even asked farmers to defer one crop cycle, saying only then the authorities would be able to secure Telangana’s drinking water supply. 

Hyderabad, in particular, is on a water crisis alert with the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWSBB) urging people to conserve water for the next eight months as groundwater levels and reservoir water levels have fallen. 

Demand for water tankers has also surged in many parts of the city. From November 1 onwards, the water board has said it will impose a fine of Rs 5,000 on water tanker owners if any wastage is identified, and that it will cancel their registration if there’s a second violation. 

Underutilised projects from the BRS era weakening water security?

BRS working president KT Rama Rao has alleged that the water crisis cannot be entirely blamed on El Niño and that the Congress is also to blame. According to him, huge volumes of water from the Godavari and Krishna rivers have been released downstream since monsoon began this year, despite an opportunity to use pumphouses at Kannepalli and Devaradula to fill up reservoirs. 

He also alleged that functioning pumps that are part of the Palamuru-Rangareddy and Kaleshwaram lift irrigation projects have not been turned on, wasting water from the Krishna river. 

On October 25, a delegation of BRS MLAs visited the Kannepalli pumphouse, which is part of the Kaleshwaram project, alleging that there are 20,000 cusecs of water flowing through that is not being utilised by the state. KTR alleged that this was solely because the Revanth Reddy government did not want to credit the previous BRS government for averting the water crisis in Hyderabad.   

Congress says BRS fumbled irrigation projects 

The Congress government has claimed that Telangana could have handled the El Niño situation much better if BRS had not redesigned the Kaleshwaram project around Medigadda, altering the original Pranahita-Chevella project. Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on October 24 called the move a “historic blunder”. 

Weeks ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections, six piers of the Medigadda Barrage – the starting point of the BRS government’s prestigious Kaleshwaram project – had sunk due to damage. 

Addressing the media on October 24, Uttam Kumar Reddy announced a roadmap for rehabilitation of the Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages of the Kaleshwaram project by the next monsoon in 2027. He said that Telangana would have been far better equipped to withstand the El Niño-induced drought conditions had the original Pranahita-Chevella project been completed without modifications.

He alleged that a project originally envisaged at a cost of around Rs 38,000 crore led to an enormous financial burden on the state, without delivering the promised irrigation benefits. 

According to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), the cost of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project was likely to exceed Rs 1.4 lakh crore. The project has also been mired in corruption allegations. A judicial probe initiated after Congress came to power pinned responsibility on former chief minister KCR, former irrigation minister T Harish Rao, and former finance minister Eatala Rajender for lapses in the Kaleshwaram project. But after the Telangana High Court set aside the findings of the judicial commission, the state government decided to hand the probe over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). 

The Irrigation Minister also criticised the BRS for failing to complete several other irrigation projects, including the Srisailam Left Bank Canal tunnel, Devadula and Sitarama projects.