Telangana Gets Water Warnings, Not Water Management

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has announced that Telangana may face a prolonged water and power crisis until July 2027. At a meeting on October 23, he warned that “not a single drop” would be available for agriculture from November to February, while drinking water would take priority. Farmers were advised to move to less water-intensive crops. The farmer has apparently been promoted to unpaid climate consultant.

El Niño is real. Weather cannot be cross-examined at a press conference, however much a government may wish to put the sky in the witness box. But reservoirs do not empty overnight, and administration is not a weather bulletin. It is what gets repaired before pumps stop, what gets planned before crops are sown and what gets published before people are told to improvise. A serious government would release reservoir figures, project-wise availability, pumping schedules, crop advisories, contingency procurement and income protection. Revanth Reddy has released the warning. The plan remains in the development pipeline, somewhere near the unfinished Young India residential schools promised for every constituency.

The timing is almost artistic. After months of selling “Telangana Rising”, the government is now preparing the state for rising water anxiety, rising power anxiety and a fresh season of explanations. Employees are still waiting for six instalments of dearness allowance, while the government’s 1,000-day achievement list continues to behave like a press release with a pulse. The administration can announce a future with cinematic confidence, but it cannot make the present irrigate itself.

Then came the familiar second act: attacks on KCR, KTR and Harish Rao for spreading “canards”. The reservoirs may be short of water, but the government’s opposition speeches remain fully stocked. Meanwhile, a construction firm has alleged that tenders for Hyderabad radial roads were manipulated and that a 15 per cent commission was sought for awards and pending payments. Those are allegations, not findings; the record must decide them. Still, the contrast is unpleasantly clear: farmers are being asked to discover austerity while contract politics is being asked to discover percentages.

Revanth Reddy is energetic at assigning blame and naming the future. Telangana now needs the less glamorous work of managing water. This government has not run out of explanations; it has run out of water.