Bengaluru/Belagavi: With absolutely no rain in the catchment areas, the water level at Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) reservoir, the lifeline of Mysuru and Bengaluru, on Monday stood at 106.02 feet as against the maximum level of 124.80 ft.
According to sources, the water level was 118.25 feet on this day last year thanks to copious rains in Kodagu district. However, this year, although, the rains were heavy during the initial days of the monsoon, it has now become scanty. "We are keeping our fingers crossed. We heard there will be spells of rains in the coming days...but it is not reliable".
The outflow from the dam has been more than the inflow due to the water requirements of canals. Dam authorities had to release water from the reservoir to save the standing crop. However, water has not been let into the river to meet the demand of Tamil Nadu. The decision to release water into local canals was taken following a demand from farmers to save the standing sugarcane crop in and around Mandya district.
"Initially, it rained cats and dogs especially in Kodagu which made us hopeful of an early filling up of KRS dam. But, the rain stopped suddenly much to the surprise of everyone. At that time, the inflow had crossed 25,000 to 35,000 cusecs, now it has dropped to hardly 1,231 cusecs. The weather office has forecast one or two spell of rain in the coming days for which we are waiting. In the past too, KRS dam had filled to the brim during August-October. It will be very difficult to meet drinking water requirement of Bengaluru and Mysuru in the coming months if there is no rain. We also also need to look into the demand of farmers to save their crops", an officer said.
Sometimes cyclones affect monsoons as it happened last year. In fact, the nature of the monsoon has changed drastically in the recent past with the incessant rain in catchment areas now missing.
Drought looms in North karnataka
With the whole of north Karnataka facing a dry spell, the region is grappling with a severe water scarcity with most of the major water sources including Almatti dam, Krishna and Bheema rivers drying up due to scanty rainfall ever since the monsoon arrived in mid-June.
Water level in Almatti dam, Ghataprabha and Malaprabha reservoirs, Hidkal dam and Bheema river has been dropping. According to sources, the rainfall received in entire north-Karnataka region including Belagavi, Gadag, Bagalkot, Vijaypur, Dharwad and Gulbarga is much lower compared to the corresponding period last year.
Almatti dam, a lifeline of the region recorded 44 tmc feet less storage compared to last July and people will face one of the worst water crisis in the last decade if the monsoon continues to be poor in the next one month. During 2003 and 2004, the government had to supply water in trains to many areas of Belagavi region due to the worst dry spell in the last one decade.
Almatti which stores more than 123 tmc feet of water presently contains 44 tmc feet of water against 89 tmc feet recorded during the corresponding period last year. In the normal course, at least two to three lakhs cusecs of water flows into Krishna river by this time in the monsoon but the inflow is extremely low this year due to scanty rainfall in the vicinity of Koyna reservoir.
The water level in Koyna and Varna reservoir from where the spillover water flows into Krishna also has gone down. Sources said, the current inflow into Krishna is merely 20,850 cusecs. Water level in Ghataprabha is 10 tmc feet lesser than last year July with merely 16.60 tmc against its maximum storage capacity of 51 tmc feet.
