Kadam and Sathnala projects: Ayacut farmers pin hopes on good rains

However, the Kadam project has started receiving inflows for the last two days. It received 3042 cusecs of water inflows and Mathadivagu received 283.34 cusecs on Monday.

There were no inflows into Swarna and Gaddenna vagu. The Sathnala project gives water to 20,000 acres in the Adilabad district while the Kadam to 68,000 acres in Nirmal and Mancehrial districts.

This situation was due to the low inflows in various projects and lack of rains in upstream in Maharashtra.

“The main factor for lack of inflows into most irrigation projects even in the third week of June was a huge deficit in rainfall in the erstwhile Adilabad district,” officials said.

It is forecast that there will be heavy rains in the coming three days and this may result in huge inflows into the project and a rise in the groundwater table.

Irrigation officials are hopeful of getting huge inflows of rainwater in the last week of June and say farmers need not panic about their standing crops in the Kharif.

The officials say that there will be huge inflows and the projects will get filled with flood water when there are flash floods. The Kadam project receives flash floods most of the time in the monsoon and a situation often arises where they have to discharge the flood water downstream to save the project.

The catchment area of the Kadam and Sathnala projects was a hilly region. The rainwater flows through streams and rivulets from hills into these projects when there are good rains during the monsoon.

The Kadam project receives rain water when there are good rains in Boath, Bajarhathnoor, Neredigoda, Sirikonda and Ichoda mandals and rains in upstream in Maharashtra. The state government is planning to construct the project on river Kupti.

The rainwater flows down through the Kuntala waterfall into the Kadam project.

Farmer Ramanveni Devender of Kupti village of Neredigonda said farmers had sown cotton and soya and were waiting for good rains. The farmers are not happy with the scanty of rainfall. Farmers pinned hopes on good rains in the next few days.