Telangana Irrigation Minister Harish Rao has requested the Karnataka government to release 15 TMC feet of water from Almatti to tackle the severe shortage of drinking water in some parts of the state.

In a letter addressed to his Karnataka counterpart MB Patil, Harish Rao pointed to the acute drinking water shortage in Telangana, especially in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, and the fluoride-affected areas of Nalgonda district.

Currently, drinking water is supplied to these places from Puttamgandi of the Nagarjunasagar project. “As against the normal minimum draw down level (MDDL) of 510 feet, the current level is 500.50 ft, and we would be barely able to sustain the supply without any inflows to Nagarjunasagar,” he said.

Harish Rao requested Patil to to release 15 TMC feet of water from Narayanpur.

After a few days of good rains, there has been a prolonged lull here, causing concern over the drinking water supply and sowing operations for the kharif crop.

Following good rains in the catchment areas of major rivers upstream in Maharashtra and Karnataka, the reservoirs there have received good inflows.

However, for the lower riparian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana that bank on good inflows into Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar, both on the Krishna, the situation has been quite alarming, as there are no fresh inflows.

While most reservoirs upstream in Karnataka have almost filled up or are close to being full, at Srisailam, the water level is at 778 feet, as against full reservoir level of 885 feet. And at Nagarjunasagar it is 500.50 feet as against FRL of 590 feet.

The states are pinning hopes on the remaining monsoon season to add to inflows.