Kharif crops under threat
With poor inflows, Nagarjunasagar reservoir presents a pathetic picture. Photo: Mucharla Srinivas
Hyderabad: Telangana received heavy rains for the last five days. The weather office predicts more rains for another four to five days but the irony is that the irrigation projects and reservoirs under the Krishna and Godavari delta have not yet received enough inflows. The present water levels in all projects were below the previous year.
The authorities warned that the crisis looms large in case the projects do not receive good inflows by July end. Generally, the projects on these two rivers receive copious inflows by July first or the second week.
With the delayed south west monsoon, the state government was preparing alternative plans for the kharif season. Farmers are yet to start the farming activities due to scarcity of irrigation water in many districts. The government was making arrangements to supply water from Kaleshwaram to the fields from July end.
Irrigation officials said that water levels in the catchment areas mainly Alamatti, Narayanpur and Ujjain under River Krishna in Karnataka were increasing at a slow pace. Current water levels in the three reservoirs are 1,681 feet, 1,571 feet and 1,602 feet respectively. The FRL (full reservoir level) of these three reservoirs should have been achieved by this time.
The gap between the available water and FRL in the projects is still huge.
It requires very heavy rain inflows to fill the Jurala, Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala projects in Telangana.
Current water level in Srisailam is 808 feet as against 885 feet FRL. Last year at this time, the project inflow was 881 feet which is almost close to the full reservoir level.
Water level in Nagarjuna sagar was only 517 feet (590 FRL) as against 535 feet last year. Water levels in Godavari basin also were not up to the expected levels.
However, study inflows from the upper riparian state of Maharashtra gave a relief as the projects mainly Nizam Sagar, Sri Ram Sagar, Mid Manair , Lower Manair dam, Kaddam and Sripada Yellampalli were filled with flood water.
Water levels in these projects were close to the last year’s reserves. It required incessant rains to reach the FRL levels of all projects for at least one week.