Acute shortage of drinking water, irrigation; labour exodus reminds pre-2014 Telangana

HYDERABAD: Telangana is reeling under severe drinking water and irrigation water shortages this summer. It reminds the people of the pre-bifurcation times when the farmers and the cattle suffered a lot due to the apathy and biased policies of the then-combined Andhra Pradesh Government.

The long queues for drinking water in front of water tanks, hiring water tankers to irrigate crops, using JCBs to dig out water holes in dried-up canals and streams, and sinking of bores by taking huge loans deeply pushing the farmers into a debt trap of unscrupulous moneylenders are all back once again.

Lack of foresight on the part of the new Congress Government in the state, which wasted valuable time highlighting three pillars of Medigadda barrage resulted in a situation where the farmers are put to suffer. While the lack of financial assistance through ‘Rytu Bandhu’ has hurt the farmers below the belt, shutting down of Kaleshwaram and pumping out 50,000 cusecs water into the sea every day reversed the agricultural revolution achieved by the earlier BRS Government.

With the shutting down of Kaleshwaram, the groundwater levels plummeted in the semi-arid zone of the Deccan plateau where soil could not remain saturated for too long, the farmers are now depending on borewells.

Similarly, several villages in almost all parts of Telangana are facing acute drinking water shortages due to a lack of management by the BRS Government's flagship programme ‘Mission Bhagiratha’.

Back to borewells

Farmers in Narsimhulupet mandal of Mahabubnagar district started spending Rs 3,000 per hour to hire a JCB to dig Akeru vagu, a seasonal stream, in the hope of striking water. The farmers are demanding the Government release water into Akeru from SRSP.

Farmers of Tirumalayapalli and Rayaparthi of Warangal district are hiring water tanks to irrigate their drying-up crops. The groundwater levels are plummeting and they have no other way to save their standing crops than purchasing water tanks.

Borla Ramreddy, of Mushtampalli of Nalgonda district the person who shot to fame after sinking 100 bores in search of water during united Andhra Pradesh, said that he has sunk six bore wells after a 10-year gap. “I never faced water shortage after Telangana was formed. The bad days started all over again,” he rued. Ramreddy is not the only farmer who is spending money on sinking borewells. Hundreds of farmers are standing in line in front of the borewell operators.

Farmers of Chinnakaparthi in Chityala mandal of Nalgonda are also purchasing water tankers to irrigate their drying crops. Kesarajupalli farmers are renting tankers to irrigate crops as borewells failed due to low groundwater levels. In Munjmpalli and Maredpalli villages hundreds of acres of standing crops are wilting without timely irrigation. Farmlands are parched and there is no one to listen to their problems in the agricultural or irrigation department. Farmers are complaining that officials were threatening them with slapping cases if they made an issue out of the crisis. In Nidamanur of Nalgonda, farmers are using fodder cutters to cut the dried paddy crops to feed the cattle.

Drinking Water

In Nachupalli tanda of Kotagiri mandal of Nizamabad district villagers gather at their nearest borewell for drinking water. In Jogulamba Gadwal the drinking water shortage is severe. In Jangampalli, the special officers who took the reins from Sarpanches failed to foresee the shortage and wasted valuable time. The safe drinking water that was once supplied to their doorsteps effectively during the BRS Government stopped. As a result, women, children, and men are trekking long distances to fetch water. Women once again stand in line for the water tanker to arrive at their village.

Also Read: Manikonda residents face water scarcity, water tanker prices surge to Rs. 1,500 - Rs. 2,000

In Nandikonda municipality of Nalgonda, people are forced to depend on tanker water even though their village is on the banks of the Krishna River. There is an acute water shortage in the Manakondur Primary Health Centre. With unknown miscreants stealing wire connecting the pump that supplies water to the health centre women are facing severe water problems as the supply to the toilets stops and patients are forced to purchase water cans.

Migration

Reminiscent of the pre-bifurcation era, agricultural labourers are once again migrating to places where they can find work. In Damaracherla mandal three- wheeler operators are making moolah by transporting agricultural labour to Andhra Pradesh. They are going there to work in the cotton and mirchi farms. Labour from Nidamanur, Tripuraram, and Miryalaguda who are unable to find work hire minivans and trucks to reach farms in neighbouring Andhra. Till recently the labour found plenty of work as the local farmers grew two crops per year with the help of canal irrigation.