Kalangi reservoir cries for attention

Tirupati: The storage capacity of Kalangi reservoir has come down drastically in the last 15 years due to ignorance of maintenance works by the water resource department. It may be noted that the reservoir was built in 1965 to provide irrigation water to 4,560 acres of farm lands in eastern mandals of Chittoor district.

In the present rainy season, though plenty of rainfall recorded water flows are not stored in the reservoir due to lack of proper maintenance works. WRD officials did not take any measures to clear the silt in the reservoir at least once in two to three years due to which the actual storage capacity was drastically fallen.

In the meanwhile, 10 gates of reservoir were in pathetic stage out of 16. As engineering staff totally ignored the maintenance of gates, lakhs of worth iron shutters (gates) were not in working condition. As a result, the inflow of water during rainy season is leaking out through shutter holes. As Kalangi left and right bank canals in bad condition, they were not able to discharge water flows from reservoir to downstream irrigation tanks.

Earlier, enough irrigation water from Kalangi reservoir will be discharged to 14 irrigation tanks, now the situation turned too worse and more than 5,000 farmers have been suffering in every rainy season without water flow in reservoir. People living in low-lying areas will be in danger as the reservoir witnessing floods during the rainy season.

The flood threat has been faced from several years by the thousands of villagers. K Subbaramaiah, a farmer, said that earlier we can cultivate at least three crops in a year by the availability of irrigation water in Kalangi reservoir. Now, the situation is not in favour of cultivating two crops in a year.

We are cultivating only a single crop with limited water reserves available in the rainy season in reservoir, he added.