With dams empty, Andhra Pradesh looks for water
Karnataka dams filling up, but water not being released
By : ch. v.m. krishna rao
Update: 2015-06-30 01:37 GMT
Hyderabad: The storage position of all major reservoirs on the Krishna in both Telangana and AP is continuously causing concern, though heavy rain upstream has helped the Almatti and Tungabhadra dams in Karnataka get some inflows.
The Almatti dam started with good inflows of about 65,000 cusecs five days ago which rose to lakh cuses before receding from Sunday, much to the worry of both Telugu States. On Monday, the inflows came down to 51,275 cusecs at Almatti. The dam now has 60 TMC ft of water against full storage of 130 TMC ft.
Officials have started generating hydel power at Almatti by utilising 5,000 cusecs of water, which is reaching the downstream Narayanapur dam. This dam with a gross capacity of 38 TMC ft diverts waters to irrigation channels. On Monday, the storage at Narayanapur reached 20 TMC ft.
This means, with reduced inflows, Almatti dam officials will only release water for power generation, keeping in view the irrigation needs of the area supplied by Narayanapur. Unless there are huge inflows in July and August, which are the crucial months for Krishna inflows, the situation as of now is grim. Going by past experience, Karnataka officials first build up storage levels at Almatti as well as Narayanapur and release water for crops in the state. Only when they are full up is water released to the downstream Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The situation at Tungabhadra is slightly better with inflows ranging between 30,000 to 40,000 cusecs. The storage at TB dam reached 23 TMC ft against full storage of 100 TMC ft.
“So far not a single cusec of Krishna or Tungabhadra water has reached Jurala, Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar in this season. We have to pray to the gods for heavy inflows in the upstream areas so that we can get some water,” said a senior irrigation official.
AP irrigation officials getting increasingly jittery over the fate of 13 lakh acres of paddy in the Krishna delta system spread over four districts. Just a week ago, there were heavy inflows into the Prakasam barrige, the principal supplier of water to the Krishna delta. Due to lack of storage at the barrage, 10 TMC ft of water was allowed to flow wastefully into the sea.
At that time, there was heavy rain in the delta region, and farmers could not prepare their fields to raise seed beds. When the rains stopped, inflows into the Prakasam barrage also got reduced. Now, the farmers are raising seed beds, and will require 25 TMC ft of water within the next 15 days for transplantation of paddy.
“Our real problem will start from July 10 onwards on where from we get that water, when we do not have storage either at Pulichintala or at Nagarjunasagar,” the official said.
300 TMC of water released into sea
Over 300 TMC ft of water was discharged into the sea from the Sir Arthur Cotton barrage at Dowleswaram from June 1. The river witnessed early floods from July 21, following heavy rainfall in the catchment area, after which irrigation officials opened the crest gates on the barrage and let the water out into the sea. The discharge at the barrage had gone up to 6.5 lakh cusecs at one point before the water started receding.
On Monday, the authorities discharged about 1.5 lakh cusecs from the barrage. Based on the previous floods data of the Godavari river with the Cental Water Commission, whenever the river witnesses early floods, especially in June, against the normal flood season of second week of July to October, the floods get delayed to third or fourth week of July.