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Brainstorming to save crops
Fast depleting water levels in the major reservoirs and other water bodies, dependency on agriculture bore wells to meet the water requirement for Rabi crops has increased. In some places, these bore wells are also being used for the supply of drinking water.Â
Hyderabad: Fast depleting water levels in the major reservoirs and other water bodies, dependency on agriculture bore wells to meet the water requirement for Rabi crops has increased. In some places, these bore wells are also being used for the supply of drinking water.
As the situation is aggravating day by day, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is likely to announce a contingency plan to address the crisis at the Collectors’ conference to be held on Monday.
According to official sources, under Krishna basin, at Nagarjunasagar dam, water level has gone down to 506 feet as against the full reservoir level (FRL) of 590 feet. The dead storage level is 500 feet, beyond which water cannot be drawn.
At Srisailam, the water storage level has gone down to 804 feet, while the FRL is 885 feet and the dead storage level is 800 feet, below which water cannot be drawn as per the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB). At Jurala, the availability of water is only 3.19 tmcft. The reservoir has a capacity of holding 10 tmcft of water.
Under Godavari basin, water availability at Nizamsagar is down to 2.70 tmcft as against the capacity of 17 tmcft. The water level at Sriramsagar has gone down to 19 tmcft. The reservoir capacity is 90 tmcft. Similarly, at the Lower Manair Dam, water level has declined to 6.23 tmcft as against the total capacity of 24 tmcft.
Irrigation officials said the situation was alarming as the water levels in all major reservoirs have declined fast and the government is struggling to supply water to save the standing crops in Khammam, Nalgonda and Ranga Reddy districts, where farmers had sown Paddy in large areas this Rabi anticipating sufficient availability of water.
Under the Godavari basin also, farmers are struggling to protect the standing crops due to scarcity of water. Water levels have almost reached dead storage level in Sriramsagar and Nizamsagar. In the backdrop of this situation, the farmers have no other option but to rely on agricultural pumpsets for water supply to their crops.
The officials said the KRMB (Krishna River Management Board) had allocated 15.5 tmcft of water to Telangana and 18.5 tmcft to Andhra Pradesh in the available 34 tmcft in Krishna to protect the standing crops this summer. Telangana has already consumed about 15 tmcft and AP 18 tmcft from Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar in February. Officials said this issue would come up prominently at the Collectors’ conference and the Chief Minister would announce a contingency plan.
By Patan Afzal Babu
