Tungabhadra Dam at Poorest Storage in 60 Years
Despite full Krishna flows, the Tungabhadra Reservoir remains at its lowest storage level in six decades, forcing authorities to prioritise drinking water over irrigation.
Even as the Krishna waters have been in full flow, water level at the Tungabhadra (TB) Reservoir is the lowest compared to the 60-year average of inflows.
Importantly, crop holidays under the project have already been announced, particularly with regard to the inflows into High Level Main Canal (HLMC) and Low Level Canal (LLC) that carry water to Anantapur and Kurnool regions.
AP government has already made it clear that water in the two canals will be released only for drinking purposes.
As on Sunday, TB dam has storage of only 41 TMC feet, with only 26,000 cusecs of inflows from the upstream areas. The storage had been 78 TMC feet during last year. The current level is still under the dead storage, which cannot be utilised for irrigation.
Though the Tungabhadra Board has assessed that the formal allocation to the HLMC will be 26 TMC feet on pro-rata basis, the supply has not crossed 30 per cent in June and 40 per cent in July.
TB dam superintendent engineer B. Narayana Naik told Deccan Chronicle that as a result, HLMC may get about 7 TMC feet and the entire water will have to be used only for drinking purposes in both Karnataka and AP.
Authorities are planning to release water next week through the HLMC and LLC to fill the summer storage and mini reservoirs to meet the drinking water needs of the Rayalaseema region.
Presently, Penna Ahobilam Balancing Reservoir is also within the dead storage level. It will also have to be filled with Tungabhadra water to supply drinking water to Anantapur and Satya Sai districts, apart from Kurnool city.
Tungabhadra authorities are firm on not providing water for irrigation, especially for paddy, from the TB Dam to Siriguppa taluk in Bellary district, known as the rice bowl of Karnataka, as the situation is worse.
Vasavi Rice Mill owner K. Gupta of Siriguppa observed that rice prices will inevitably rise if no water is released for paddy cultivation.
Tungabhadra Dam officials are hoping that the reservoir would reach its full storage by August end if heavy rains are reported in Western Ghats. The upper Tunga project is currently discharging 80,000 cusecs of water downstream.
In addition, full inflows will have to be received by the Srisailam Reservoir from Almatti and other projects upstream. The water needs of Rayalaseema region are fulfilled through the backwaters of Srisailam through the Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi project.
Last year, authorities drew 50 TMC feet of water from the Srisailam backwaters at Malyal for supply to Kurnool, Anantapur, Satya Sai, and Chittoor districts.
