Cracks in tank bunds worry farmers in Medak

​Kowdipally (Medak): Incessant rains this month have left several minor irrigation tanks in the district breached or partly damaged. Though earlier official estimates put breached tanks at 43 and 131 tanks as partly damaged, more irrigation tanks are being found in damaged condition and concerned officials have not visited some of them yet. Two of such tanks (kuntas) are Lambadolla Kunta and Yellagari Kunta, both of them located in Railapur thanda falling under Railapur gram panchayat in Kowdipally mandal.

While Lambadolla kunta is a source of water for domestic use in the hamlet inhabited by Banjaras, the water in Yellagari kunta is used for irrigation purpose covering around 50 acres of farm land in the hamlet.
Water from the bund of Lambadolla kunta was found leaking on Friday.

The water body was full to the brim and the villagers were worried about water getting wasted. Water was also found leaking from the head sluice of Yellagari kunta into the farm lands on the other side of the bund. A leakage in the sluice was visible.

Repair work of the sluice was undertaken last year (not Mission Kakatiya), but the work was shoddily done by the contractor, according to Tara Singh, a resident of Railapur thanda. A cracked and detached cement patch used to hold the sluice can be seen.

These are the only two sources of water for the hamlet and it is very well known that Kowdipally was a mandal which had experienced severe scarcity of water even until a few months ago.

The villagers are still waiting for irrigation officials to come and carry out repairs to the minor damages to prevent huge loss of water from the kuntas.

As the villagers reported the damage, the village sarpanch immediately got 30 tractors of soil and dumped them on the bund to avert a major disaster. Hundreds of acres of farm lands and many houses were saved from getting submerged.