Ballari: The heavy rain is fast filling up the Tungabhadra reservoir, which received an inflow of over two tmc ft of water on Thursday.
While on Wednesday, the inflow into the dam was 5.31 tmc ft, on Thursday, it was 7.75 tmc ft, an addition of 28,367 cusecs in a single day. Owing to the accumulation of silt over the years, the dam’s original capacity of 133 tmc ft has fallen to around 100 tmcft.
In the past, the dam would fill up early and overflow in August, but for the last three years, it has not filled up entirely owing to the failure of the monsoon.
Consequently, farmers in Hospate region were unable to cultivate a second crop for the last two years. This year too the situation seems bleak, but the fact that the dam is full has brought cheer to the farmers. The authorities have, however, appealed to the farmers to cultivate only light irrigated crops and make judicious use of the water.
The dam, constructed in the early1950s across the river Tungabhadra, a tributary of the Krishna, at Hosapete in Ballari district, is the life-line of the six chronically drought- prone districts of Ballari, Koppal and Raichur in Karnataka and Anantapur, Cuddapah and Kurnool in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Besides irrigating vast patches of land in the two states, it also generates hydel power.
“ Even a small amount of rain helps fill the Tunga dam and so additional water is let out from it continuously,” said an official of the Tungabhadra Dam Administrative Board.
