The Maharashtra government would accord first priority to utilising water available from the Koyna dam to meet drinking water needs in the Satara and Sangli regions, state energy minister Padmasinh Patil said. Only then will the remaining water be channelised towards irrigation requirements, while ensuring that the Koyna hydro project is not adversely affected.
Patil noted that instructions had been issued to block enough water from the Koyna dam to fulfill the drinking and irrigation water requirements in these regions up to July 2002, as was done in 2001.
The government instructions were issued after the chief engineer of the Koyna project sought instructions from the state government for providing the required 24.105 million gallons for irrigation purposes. For this, power generation operations from phase four of the hydro project would have to be suspended from May 27, 2002 till the reservoir is full.
Alternatively, the engineer informed the government, 18.345 million gallons from the dam could be released with uninterrupted generation of power from phase four of the hydro project till June 15, 2002.