Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari has asked officials to work on ways to “better utilise” water from non-Himalayan rivers that are emptying out into the sea.

He cited the Polavaram project as an example of where water was being transferred from the Godavari to the Krishna river and how parts of it going into the sea could be diverted to water-deficit regions. “I have learnt that nearly 2,500 tmcft water from the Godavari is emptying out into the sea. If suitably used, it can go a long way to solve the water availability in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka,” he told a gathering of officers discussing interlinking projects.

Polavaram is a major irrigation project being constructed on the Godavari River across Andhra, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. “While projects concerning Himalayan rivers such as the Ganga and the Brahmaputra ought to be first completed, we should look at other rivers too,” he said.