Telangana Gets Water Warning, Not Water Governance

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy says Telangana may face a drinking-water crisis until July 2027. The state has less than 200 tmc ft in its reservoirs, he says, while 15 lakh of Telangana’s 30 lakh pump sets have already dried up. Electricity demand has reached 20,000 MW, against 13,000 MW in undivided Andhra Pradesh during the comparable period. The numbers are grim. The government’s response is remarkably familiar: announce the danger after it has arrived, then present the announcement as preparedness.

Revanth says the government has been warning people for six months. That is reassuring. Six months is a long time to alert citizens, provided the alert includes something beyond waiting for the reservoirs to become a press conference. He has compared the coming water crisis to Covid and asked people to conserve water and electricity. Government offices, he says, should lead by example. A sensible instruction, assuming the offices have been told before the citizens are asked to carry the burden.

Last week, the Chief Minister threatened suspension for senior energy officials who failed to ensure round-the-clock power for farmers. He also said he was accountable and would not spare those responsible for negligence. This is the administration’s preferred operating system: the file remains asleep, the crisis becomes visible, the Chief Minister discovers urgency at a review meeting, and officers are ordered to produce a miracle under threat of suspension. If the reservoirs fall further, farmers will be told to adjust their crops, households will be told to use less water, and the weather will be summoned to the witness box.

El Niño may be part of the explanation. It is not a substitute for governance. Weather is not a ministerial department, and drought does not excuse the absence of planning. The more revealing concern, however, was Revanth’s fear that the BRS might exploit public anxiety. Reservoirs are shrinking, pump sets are drying up and power demand is surging, but the immediate political emergency is that somebody else may discuss it. That is the role inversion at the heart of this government: managing the crisis comes after managing the narrative.

Revanth Reddy is energetic at warning officers, blaming conditions and pre-empting the opposition. Telangana needed water planning. It received a deadline, a threat and the next excuse. July 2027 is now the government’s delivery date for accountability.