Water enough for Rabi too

Sathnala (Adilabad): There is so much water available in irrigation projects in the region that it could last till the next Rabi season. Cotton, soya and paddy farmers were happy with the copious rain over the past few days. All the irrigation projects received huge inflows following heavy rains in the old Adilabad district.

The availability of the  water in the irrigation projects will also help the standing Kharif crops in old Adilabad.  

Sathnala, a medium irrigation project, received massive inflows from the  surrounding areas. The name Sathnala is derived from water flowing from seven streams in the hills.

Assistant executive engineer of Sathnala project J.P. Rambabu said the abundant water in irrigation projects would certainly boost irrigation in the next Rabi season and added that the project had reached full water level and would be sufficient for the ayacut.

He said the water level in Sathnala reached full reservoir level (FRL) on Saturday night and they were releasing water in view of project safety.

According to sources, the water level reached 286.5 ft FRL with 1.24 tmc ft storage and the present water level was 285.40 ft with a capacity of 0.984 tmc ft as of 7.30 pm on Thursday. 

The Sathnala project is located just 18 km away from Adilabad town. Irrigation officials released water by lifting one gate.

Irrigation officials say that there is no need of releasing water to the standing crops now as most of the farmers cultivate dry crops in the present Kharif season and water is more than sufficient due to rains.  The water release requirement will arise only for Rabi.    
  
Officials also released water from Mathadivagu following huge inflows. Yellampalli and Kadam also received large inflows. As many as 24,000 acres are being cultivated under Sathnala in Kharif.

Sathanala irrigation project hardly reached FRL by September or October the last year but this year the project has reached FRL in July itself. 

H7