Water crisis looms over Mysuru region as levels dip

Mysuru: The summer may not have fully arrived yet, but the water levels of all four reservoirs in the Cauvery catchment area have dipped  already. The authorities plan to supply the available water to Bengaluru and Mysuru for drinking, but  have warned farmers they will receive no water for their summer crop.

The water level at the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) dam stood at 93.27 feet as against its capacity to hold 124.80 feet on Monday. While the inflow into the dam was 270 cusecs, 484 cusecs was released into the river. As little as 100 cusecs  was released into the canal for the standing crops.

“Water for the standing crops will be released till  March 20 , but there will be no water for the summer crops this year. We hope  to provide drinking water to Mysuru and Bengaluru, however,” said KRS sources. The Kabini reservoir had  2262.62 feet of wwater as against its capacity to hold 2284 feet.

While the inflow  into the dam was 118 cusecs , as much as 1000 cusecs of water was released to meet the drinking water needs of Mysuru and Bengaluru. Meanwhile, the Hemavathi reservoir had 2867.72 feet water on Monday as against its capacity to hold 2922 feet.  The inflow into the dam was 48 cusecs and the outflow to the river for drinking water was 125 cusecs.

No water was released into the canals for irrigation.  The Harangi reservoir had 2794.94 feet of water as against its capacity to hold 2859 feet of it.  The inflow into the dam was 38 cusecs and the outflow was nil both to the river and for irrigation. Meanwhile, 150.938 tmc of water has been released to Tamil Nadu so far in keeping with the final order of the Cauvery water dispute tribunal.