The Hindu : Karnataka News : Farmers helpless as water goes waste from TB Dam

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Karnataka

Karnataka

Farmers helpless as water goes waste from TB Dam

Staff Correspondent

Successive governments ignored a simple suggestion

Storage capacity of the dam reduced by 30 tmcft.
Experts suggest early release of water

A COLOSSAL WASTE: A file picture of the Tungabahdra Dam at Hospet.

BELLARY: One more irrigation year is about to start. But the State Government has done nothing to utilise its share of water in the Tungabhadra Reservoir.

Heavy formation of silt over the years has brought down the storage capacity of the reservoir at Hospet by around 30 tmc feet. The original capacity of the reservoir was 133 tmcft. As a result, around 30 tmcft of water is unavailable for irrigation and is flowing into the river.

The reservoir, an inter-State project taken up in 1953, has been catering to the irrigation and drinking water needs of the drought-prone districts of Raichur and Bellary in Karnataka and Anantpur, Kadapa and Kurnool districts in Andhra Pradesh in the ratio of 65:35.

Although the capacity of the dam is 133 tmcft, the utilisation was fixed at 212 tmcft, going by the good rainfall in the catchment area during monsoon and post-monsoon, which helped fill up the reservoir twice every year. Even the loss of water is shared in the same ratio between the two States.

As the removing silt from the reservoir is unviable, construction of balancing reservoirs is another proposition that was thought of to recoup the State’s share of water to some extent. But the successive governments were lukewarm to the proposal.

The Bellary-based Tungabhadra Jalasadhana Samiti has been suggesting an easy way to ensure optimum utilisation of water without any financial burden on the Government.

The samiti has been advocating early release of water every year so that the cultivation was taken up early and to that extent more water could be utilised. This was the suggestion made by samiti president Darur Pullaiah and the former Chief Engineer K.M. Rudraswamy.

Good rainfall last year and good pre-monsoon rainfall this year ensured that around 15.59 tmcft of water is augmented in the reservoir and the present water level in the dam is 1,595 feet as against the full level of 1,633 feet.

Anticipating good rainfall during this season, water could be released into the canal earlier, Mr. Pullaiah told The Hindu.

It remains to be seen whether three ministers from the district – G. Janardhan Reddy, G. Karunakar Reddy and B. Sriramulu – use their clout in the Bharatiya Janata Party Government to take steps to ensure optimum utilisation of the State’s share of the Tungabhadra waters.

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