T he Almatti dam dispute, which had shaken political and inter-State relations in the late 1990s and early 2000s in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, has resurfaced in Telangana.

Recently, Karnataka decided to raise the height of the dam, claiming that it aligns with the 2013 Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II (KWDT-II) Award and utilises “excess water flowing into the sea”. This has revived apprehensions in Telangana about irrigation being impacted.

The dam, part of the Upper Krishna Project in north Karnataka, is a hydroelectric and irrigation facility on the Krishna river. Originally designed with a Full Reservoir Level of 524.256 metres, it was capped at 519.6 metres with the Supreme Court’s intervention.

As a lower riparian State, Telangana relies heavily on Krishna flows for drinking

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