Moved by a trail of human tragedy induced by fluorosis across his home state for want of safe drinking water, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao conceived the Rs 43,791 cr Mission Bhagiratha. The project was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Komatibanda in KCR’s Gajwel Assembly constituency in Medak district in August 2016.
The project aims to supply 100 litres of clean water per head per day in rural areas, 135 litres in municipal towns and 150 litres in cities, with water mainly sourced from the Godavari and the Krishna rivers by creating a grid of reservoirs. The project is designed to draw 53.68 tmcft from the Godavari and 32.43 tmcft from the Krishna to make it functional.
Eventually, the mega project fetched KCR the sobriquet – Waterman of Telangana. It was the combination of three electrifying programmes – Mission Bhagiratha, double bedroom flats for the poor and three acres of agriculture land for the landless – that cast a spell on Telangana voters with which KCR’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) returned to power with a landslide victory. The TRS hopes to perform a similar show in the current general elections with the magical effect of Mission Bhagiratha, among others.
But the project seems to have run into rough weather, thanks to nature’s vagaries that have had a debilitating effect on inflow into both rivers.
Dwindling inflow
The Indian Meteorological Department in a bulletin said the country as a whole received 804 mm rainfall during the four months (June – September) of the southwest monsoon in 2018 over the normal rainfall of 887.5 mm. This is 9.4% less than the average rainfall. The trend showed a marked impact on inflow into the Godavari and the Krishna rivers.
The South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) in its latest report said five of the Godavari sub-basins recorded deficit rainfall during the period with Manjira (-28%) being the lowest. In the Krishna river basin, all the five sub-basins received deficit rainfall with Tungabhadra at 342 mm being the lowest among all the sub-basins in the entire country.
In view of the poor inflow, the Telangana government has to contend with drawing 32.43 tmcft as against the designed 53.68 tmcft from the Godavari and 21.5 tmcft as against the proposed 32.43 tmcft from the Krishna rivers in order to carry out its commitment to supply piped water to 3,51,93,978 households. In view of a drop in the allocations, several reservoirs serving as a grid for Mission Bhagiratha did not receive sufficient water.
In March 2019, the Krishna River Management Board allotted 29.5 tmcft from the Krishna river for Telangana. The state government is left with utilising only 9 tmcft for rabi needs under the Nagarjuna Sagar left canal while the rest is for Mission Bhagiratha. It is proposed to draw 8.5 tmcft for the Hyderabad metro water supply project to meet the drinking needs of the city with around 1 crore people, including 20 lakh arriving from different places daily.
A recent report in the Deccan Chronicle said the twin cities require 460 million gallons per day, but the supplies from the Krishna, Godavari and Osman Sagar failed to cross 430 million gallons. The Hyderabad Water Board has been deploying 5,000 tankers for water supply to different colonies in and around the city on a daily basis.
Piped water is still a distant dream for 10 lakh people living in 1,670 slums in Hyderabad and residents of 15% of villages.
Farmers upset
The diversion of river water for the drinking needs of people, mostly located in urban areas, triggered massive protests from farmers in areas like Jagityal and Medak. A recent Times of India report said farmers in Medak district resorted to damaging the drinking water pipelines laid under the Mission Bhagiratha project and “pilfering” river water for cultivation. When groundwater levels fall drastically, what can farmers do to protect their standing crops, asks Malla Reddy, a farmer leader representing the All India Kisan Mazdoor Sangh, saying it is unfair on the part of the government to jail farmers protesting for water.
M Syamprasad, general secretary of the Telangana Retired Irrigation Engineers Association, told this writer that the water deficit is only a temporary phenomenon and will not affect the underlying objective of Mission Bhagiratha. “Keeping in mind the adverse weather conditions, the Telangana government has increased the minimum drawdown levels (MDDL) from 70% up to 75% to sustain the Mission Bhagiratha project,” he asserted.