Study to save flow of water of Somasila Kandaleru Flood Flow

Nellore: The irrigation wing is carrying out a study to increase the capacity of Somasila Kandaleru Flood Flow (SKFF) canal to make use of it to transfer the heavy inflows from Somasila to Kandaleru reservoir.

The department has no alternative other than releasing water into the sea when the inflows are heavy even if Kandaleru is empty because the SKFF canal cannot carry more than 12,000 cusecs.

Irrigation engineers had sleepless nights when 12,000 cusecs was released to Kandaleru in view of inflows to the extent of 30,000 cusecs constantly into Somasila during the recent heavy rains. The engineers are worried over possible breach to the canal, which can lead to submerging of large number of villages and cause a catastrophe.

Nearly 20 tmc ft of precious water from Pennar River and 40 to 50 tmc from Swarnamukhi Riv-er flowed into the Bay of Bengal during the curr-ent rainy season because the irrigation department had no advance planning to divert and store the flood water.

The wastage into the sea from Somasila would have been much more if rains continued for a few more days. Realising their faux pas, the department has been preparing proposals to divert water from streams to fill tanks and water bodies. One of the proposals is to use Somasila-Swarnamukhi (SS) Canal to divert water from Somasila to Kandaleru through the existing Kandaleru stream.

The SS Canal starts from 12th km of SKFF Canal and the work has been suspended due to forest clearance issues. Telugu Ganga officials feel that they can transfer another 12,000 cusecs through SS canal to Kandaleru if forest clearance is obtained as early as possible.

With regard to Swarnamukhi river, engineers are studying the feasibility to build check dams or one or two barrages to store water. There are also plans to construct new tanks to divert water from streams such as Beera Peru and Boggeru in Pennar delta, a senior engineer of irrigation said.

 

 

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