Telangana’s Irrigation Woes: Will proper advance planning deliver?

Despite heavy monsoon rains filling Telangana’s reservoirs, farmers remain wary of a repeat of last year’s irrigation failures. The 2024–25 Rabi season was marred by poor water distribution despite SCIWAM’s planning.

Hyderabad: As relentless monsoon rains continue to lash Telangana prompting flood warnings across the State, a stark reminder of last year’s irrigation failures looms large. While reservoirs in the Godavari and Krishna basins brim with water, many at over 90% capacity, farmers in key ayacuts remain skeptical.

The devastating Rabi season of 2024-25, marred by poor water management despite the State Level Committee for Integrated Water Management (SCIWAM) advance planning and approvals, left vast tracts parched. Now, with storage levels soaring amid haunting floods, the question echoes: Will this year mark a turnaround, or a repeat the cycle of unfulfilled promises?

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Last year’s Rabi campaign exposed glaring lapses in the current ruling dispensation’s water governance. SCIWAM, the key body chaired by the Engineer-in-Chief of the Irrigation Department, convened a pre-season meeting in December 2024 to unveil the operational plans.

Drawing on hydrological models and inter-state sharing protocols, it allocated 300 TMC for Rabi crops across 43 lakh acres, prioritizing paddy under the Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) and Krishna Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) commands.

Yet, implementation faltered disastrously. Major portions of SRSP Stage II ayacut, spanning large stretches of the erstwhile Warangal and Nalgonda districts received scant water. In Suryapet district, farmers were forced to abandon paddy fields mid-season.

The experience of Rabi farmers in Adilabad and Nizamabad districts was almost the same. “Canals of the SRSP and other projects ran dry by February,” recalled farmers at Mannegudem in Dornakal mandal of Mahabubabad district. Releases from SRSP, which began on December 24 for zones above Lower Manair Dam (LMD), prioritized upstream areas, leaving tail-end farmers high and dry.

Similarly, the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project’s expansive network, meant to irrigate 45 lakh acres, could not be utilised due to political controversy. The plans for utilising the storage KLIP reservoirs could not bridge the gap, leading to crop losses.

September 2025’s deluge has left many of the reservoirs full to the brim, offering a lifeline for the upcoming Rabi, if planned and implemented well. Nagarjuna Sagar on the Krishna, holding 305.51 TMC against its 312 tmc gross storage capacity, is brimming with inflows exceeding 2.87 lakh cusecs on Friday.

Srisailam, shared with Andhra Pradesh, maintains 200.20 tmcs against the gross storage capacity of 215 TMCs. KLIP’s component reservoirs, including Mallanna Sagar (50 TMC capacity), are getting adequate storage.