Nizamabad: Major irrigation projects in composite Nizamabad district have not yet received inflows from upstream areas.
There is no water flow in the river Godavari and its tributary, the Manjeera, passing through Nizamabad and Kamareddy districts.
Shortage of water in Sriramsagar and Nizamsagar projects till mid-July is worrying people. These two projects not only cater to agricultural needs, they also provide drinking water to more than six districts, especially, undivided Nizamabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Karimnagar. Deficit rainfall in the catchment areas is also adversely affecting water storage in both the projects.
The Godavari get water from rain in Maharashtra and the Manjeera from Karnataka. The dry spell is continuing in the southern states leaving the rivers dry. Interestingly, dams across the Godavari and the Manjeera in ups-tream areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka have also been facing a similar situation of water shortage.
Presently, the water level in the Sriramsagar project on Wednesday stood at 1,048.4 feet as against its full reservoir level of 1,091 ft. The same day last year, the level was 1059.7 ft (13.28 tmc ft). Against the storage capacity of 90.313 tmc ft, the SRSP has merely 5.36 tmc. Outflow for drinking water needs was 226 cusecs on Wednesday.
In Nizamsagar, the water level is 1,366.74 ft against its FRL of 1,405 ft. Against the storage of 17.803 tmc ft, the project has 0.08 tmc ft. Last year, on the same day, water in the Nizamsagar stood at 1385.06 ft and storage was 2.39 tmc ft, data with the government showed.
