The Hindu : Karnataka / Bellary News : Capacity of Tungabhadra dam shrinks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 20, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bellary

Capacity of Tungabhadra dam shrinks

M. Ahiraj

Government is planning to build 10 balancing reservoirs downstream of river to use excess water

Falling short: A file picture of the Tungabhadra Dam near Hospet in Bellary district.

BELLARY: Although a formal announcement is yet to be made in this regard, it is a known fact that the capacity of the Tungabhadra Reservoir at Hospet has come down.

At present, the reservoir is capable of augmenting only around 103 tmcft of water as against its original capacity of around 133 tmcft.

The 30 tmcft loss is from the share allocated to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh by the Bachawat Tribunal Award.

The Tungabhadra Dam is an inter-State project that caters to the drinking water and irrigation needs of Bellary, Raichur, and Koppal districts in Karnataka and the Anantapur, Cuddapah and Kurnool districts in Andhra Pradesh.

Krishna waters is currently shared by the riparian States, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, in the ratio of 2:1.

According to the rules of the award, the loss will also be shared in the same proportion.

The Central Water Commission has constituted a board with representatives from either State to monitor the sharing and release of water from the reservoir.

Silting

Heavy silting over the years owing to mining in the surrounding regions and agriculture in the backwaters of the dam are the main reasons for the fall in the augmentation capacity of the dam.

In the last 10 years, around 10 ft of silt has accumulated in the dam bringing down its water storage capacity by 10 tmcft. According to a survey conducted in the year 1993, the capacity of the dam stood at 111.5 tmcft.

Despite the worsening situation, no concrete steps are being taken by the authorities concerned to make good the wastage in water.

It goes without saying that Andhra Pradesh, being the lower riparian State, has benefited from the let off of excess water from the dam.

Increase in height

Official sources said that with silting of the dam and the proposal to increase the height of the dam, mooted by the former Minister for Water Resources H.K. Patil, not taking off, the construction of balancing reservoirs is the only alternative to avoid further loss of water.

The State Government has announced that it plans to construct around 10 balancing reservoirs at suitable places on the left and right banks of the reservoir and augment around 10 tmcft of water.

V.T. Udhyal, Chief Engineer, Tungabhadra Board and Irrigation Central Zone, Munirabad, told The Hindu that around Rs. 500 crores is required to construct the balancing reservoirs.

However, the State Government has only allocated a nominal amount of Rs. 2 crores in this year's Budget for the construction of the balancing reservoirs.

Mr. Uddihal said that efforts are on to construct balancing reservoirs downstream of the dam to augment the water that is released into the river when the dam is full. The water augmented at these balancing reservoirs can be released to Andhra Pradesh and accounted for out of its share of the Krishna water allocation.

He said that the process of removing silt from the reservoir, though it is expensive, needs to be taken up wherever possible to help increase the storage of the reservoir.

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Capacity of Tungabhadra dam shrinks