Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Water levels in reservoirs present bleak picture

VIJAYAWADA: The water levels in various reservoirs in the Krishna basin look bleak, in view of the limited availability of water for irrigation under various projects. Minister for Major Irrigation Ponnala Lakshmaiah released water to the Krishna delta amidst fanfare on Sunday. While 120 tmc ft to 140 tmc ft are required for irrigating the 13 lakh acre ayacut of Krishna delta during kharif, all the six projects in the river basin have only 92 tmc ft available for irrigation, according to the Reservoir Status Information System.

While 77 tmcft of water is available for irrigation in Nagarjuna Sagar Project, the water has already reached dead storage level in Srisailam Project. The position of water in the four irrigation projects in Karnataka is worse. While only 13 tmcft of water is available for irrigation in Tungabhadra Project, a mere two tmcft is available for irrigation in Almatti. The water has reached dead storage level in both Narayanapur and Jurala projects. The inflow of water from the upper reaches was also bleak with just 17,000 cusecs trickling into Almatti on Monday.

A surplus of 2,800 cusecs was recorded at Prakasam Barrage after a moderate rainfall in the catchment areas of Krishna River downstream the Nagarjuna Sagar Project on Friday. The surplus at the barrage dropped to 1,756 cusecs on Saturday and rose to 2,547 cusecs on Sunday because of rainfall. The surplus has again fallen to a mere 800 cusecs on Monday. The Nagarjuna Sagar Project authorities released 15,000 cusecs on Monday morning and reduced the outflow to 800 cusecs on Tuesday. A couple of days will be required for the water to reach here from the irrigation project.

Vijayawada Irrigation Circle Deputy Superintending Engineer G. Bhaskara Rao told The Hindu that water was being released ‘nominally’ into the Krishna Eastern Main call to flush out the Bandar, Eluru and Ryve’s canals of the sewage that seeped into them. Water would be released on a regular basis once the water arrives from Nagarjuna Sagar.

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