Karnataka - Belgaum   

‘1.50 tmcft of water going waste’

Staff Correspondent

Belgaum: At a time when people are facing acute drinking water shortage in the twin cities of Hubli-Dharwad and towns and villages in the four districts of North Karnataka, including the north eastern parts of Belgaum district and Gadag, efforts have not been made to plug the loss of 1.50 tmcft of water in the Malaprabha-Ghataprabha projects area.

This has also been acknowledged by C.M. Nimbannavar, chairman of the Catchment Area Development Authority for the two major irrigation projects of the region. At a press conference here on Thursday, he said that people are suffering without water yet such a huge quantity was going waste due to leakages at several points.

It may be recalled that the former Minister for Water Resources H.K. Patil had some time ago observed that more than 2 tmcft of water was going waste due to leakages in canals and distributaries of the Malaprabha project and instructed the authorities concerned to take steps to plug the leakages.

Briefing about the ongoing works under the CADA, Mr. Nimbannavar said an action plan to construct canals/distributaries to irrigate another 5000 hectares of land under the Malaprabha Project at a cost of Rs. 5 crore and 15,000 hectares under the Ghataprabha Project at a cost Rs. 15 crore during the current financial year 2007-08 was submitted to the Government.

With legislators from the region supporting development works in the projects, he expected to get additional funds.

As of now, of the 5,30,851 hectares of area under irrigation under the CADA, 28,363 hectares and 63,950 hectares are yet to be covered under the Malaprabha and the Ghataprabha projects, respectively. Though it has been planned to complete all the works by March 2008, it depends upon the flow of funds and the availability of skilled and technical manpower with the CADA.

The main canal works would be implemented by the Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Limited and the task of executing work on the distributaries lay with the CADA. However, the CADA was facing shortage of manpower, particularly technical staff.

He also threw light on an innovative scheme implemented to rejuvenate soil fertility in Akkimardi village of Jamkhandi taluk of Bagalkot district.

He said 65 hectares of agricultural land had lost its fertility but a modern and innovative scheme had been successfully implemented to the satisfaction of all farmers. Now, demands were coming from other regions where soil condition is poor due to water logging.

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‘1.50 tmcft of water going waste’

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