Chandrababu Naidu likely to meet Karnataka CM on river water sharing issue

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is likely to meet his Karnataka counterpart Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru on November 4 to discuss sharing of river water.

Naidu said that he would request the Karnataka Chief Minister to spare 32 tmc feet of water from the Tungabhadra high-level canal for use by Andhra Pradesh since the state faces shortage of water, official sources in the AP Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said here today.

The AP Chief Minister held a review on irrigation with Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao and senior officials here today evening.

Currently there is a deficit of 78 tmc ft of water in river Krishna as the level stood at 857 feet at Srisailam as on Tuesday.

With no sign of more water flowing into the reservoir, there is concern in the AP government about meeting drinking water needs until the next summer in the Rayalaseema region of the state in particular.

Hence, the AP government decided to request the upper riparian state Karnataka to release 32 tmc ft of water from Tungabhadra to meet drinking water needs, CMO sources said.

At the review meeting, the AP Chief Minister directed irrigation authorities to ensure better utilisation of available water from not only Krishna river but also from Godavari, Penna, Vamsadhara and Nagavali rivers to overcome any possible crisis.