Mounting demand for simultaneous release of NSP water, poses major challenge to officials

Farmers from three zones have been mounting pressure on elected representatives and officials for early release of water to their respective distributaries.

Hyderabad: Mounting demand for simultaneous release of water for all the three zones under the Nagarjuna Sagar Left Canal system is posing a major challenge to irrigation officials. It is more so this year as farmers, who were deprived of two crop seasons (Kharif and Rabi in 2023) due to a crop holiday, are firm on raising paddy in a big way and are gearing up for the season as the conditions are favourable for the crop in August and September.

Farmers in Zone I, Zone II and Zone II have been mounting pressure on elected representatives and officials for early release of water to their respective distributaries. All the three zones have over two lakh acres of ayacut each. Zone Three is catering partly to ayacut in Andhra Pradesh, especially in the Nuzvid division.

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The farmers under the Nagarjuna Sagar Project were quite jubilant this year as the project is brimming with adequate inflows. But meeting the irrigation demand in all the pockets simultaneously would result in severe water management problems. The Left Canal officials are worried as the demand for water is much above the carrying capacity of the main canal, which is only 11000 cusecs. The infrastructure may not be able to handle peak demands effectively. When multiple users request water releases at the same time without considering the canal’s carrying capacity, it can lead to several problems, they said.

The canal may not be able to handle the volume of water, leading to potential breaches or flooding. Water may not reach all users equally, causing some areas especially the tail-end ayacut to experience shortages while others may have excess. In addition to the farmers in NSP ayacut in Telangana, the AP farmers in Zone III of the left canal also joined the chorus for early release of water.

AP Saguneeti Viniyogadarula Sanghala Samakyha (Water Users Associations Federation of AP) on Wednesday came up with a demand for scheduling water release to the Zone III ayacut in such a way that the losses due to evaporation and seepage were minimised. Since the Zone III was being given water in the third phase of the irrigation schedule, the transmission losses were huge, Federation leaders AVG Krishna Rao and P Ramanjaneya Raju, who met KRMB officials at Jala Soudha here, said.

They demanded steps to ensure that at least 32 TMC of water would reach the AP ayacut under the NSP Left Canal. Water release to Zone III is usually scheduled after meeting the demand in first two zones in the first round of the water releases. The Irrigation schedule is timed hitherto such a way that it would ensure the Rabi crop in a full-fledged manner.

The Federation also insisted on release of water to meet the drinking water needs on priority this time. The NSP authorities who released water to the left canal three days ago sought to fill some 550 tanks and ponds in erstwhile Nalgonda and Khammam districts on priority. Catering to the drinking water needs in zone III at this hour would be an uphill task, the said.

NSP Left Canal carrying capacity is limited to 11000 cusecs

Giving water to zone III along with first two zone may lead to breaches

The irrigation Schedule under NSLC is yet to be finalised

Drinking water tanks in Telangana districts being fed on priority