Telengana's water grouse

For the past four decades Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have been jostling for a share of the Krishna river waters. A tribunal formed to set  the legal limit on how much water each state can use, submitted its provisional award in December 2010, which is presently being contested by all three states. Each is seeking to enhance its allocated share. But the dispute is not just between these states. The fight for a share of the Krishna waters can be witnessed within Andhra Pradesh, too.

Half the water allocation from the Krishna is to areas outside the river basin, admit officials in the Andhra Pradesh irrigation department. This iniquitous distribution has led to protests from the pro-Telengana supporters and those within the river basin whose land is a collection and run-off point for the Krishna. Political parties were formed to pursue separate statehood for Telengana region in 1969, the same year the first Krishna water dispute tribunal was formed. Almost 69 per cent of the Krishna river's catchment in Andhra Pradesh lies in the Telengana region. Yet, the region at best gets a fifth of the Krishna waters.

Delta farmers get preference

Parties fighting for separate statehood argue they are getting the short-shrift because they are living in a larger state with entrenched political interests. “For instance, in the first week of June, water is released for delta farmers. It is in the same agro-climatic region (as Telangana), but see the blatant preference. The delta people, outside the basin, get water at the right time. Many of us in the Telengana region get water in August,” says K R Parcha, a farmer. “Paddy's physiological cycle is in sync with the season. So if paddy is transplanted in July, you get five to seven tonnes per hectare. If this is done in August, you cannot get more than four tonnes. It is clear that we are on the wrong side of the political spectrum,” he adds. The preferential treatment helps delta farmers cultivate two to three crops each year. No wonder, it is known as the granary of Andhra Pradesh, remarks Parcha, who has been farming for the past 30 years.  Telengana region

Farmers in the coastal areas, outside the river basin, have been using the waters of the Krishna for more than a century. The water is supplied through an extensive network of canals planned by Sir Arthur Cotton and other British engineers in the 19th century. The irrigated area in the Krishna delta grew leaps and bounds in the 20th century. The first tribunal which gave its award in 1976, allocated 51.2 million cubic metre (mcm) water to the Krishna delta, but the utilisation is well above this (see table: 'Over-utlisation of waters in the Krishna delta').

In Andhra Pradesh, it was assured that farms spread over 1.1 million ha within the Krishna basin would get access to irrigation water. Approximately 3.8 million ha within the basin still does not have irrigation facility, of which 25 per cent is proposed to be included in the present tribunal, according to government sources. Under the first tribunal, nearly one million ha for assured irrigation was included outside the basin, and 1.3 million ha is proposed for irrigation with Krishna water, again more than that proposed for those living within the river basin.

According to the irrigation department, the entire area in the river basin and the areas outside the basin that need to be served with Krishna water are either arid or semi-arid and therefore, providing irrigation facilities is necessary for sustaining agriculture. These areas receive low rainfall and the availability of groundwater is not adequate and in some areas it is also not fit for drinking purposes, being brackish, saline or contaminated with fluoride, say department officials. According to a 2008 report: “Many farmers, numbering in hundreds have committed suicide, unable to bear the financial losses, as the crops grown by them were successively withering, since the bore wells failed to yield enough water for agriculture.”

“Intra-basin use should take precedence over inter-basin transfers (assuming that these are needed at all), but if the states in a dispute have plans for inter-basin transfers, the right course would be to include them in their submissions to the tribunal, so that the tribunal can take a view on them in making allocations,” says Ramaswamy Iyer, former secretary, ministry of water resources (see table: 'Disparity in utilisation of allocated waters of Krishna river').