State stares at water crisis, thanks to scanty rainfall

VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh is going to face a major water crisis in the upcoming days as the water levels in all major and medium reservoirs have come down significantly.

Even though, the south-west monsoon entered the State about three weeks ago, so far there has not been any abundance rainfall. Many districts in the State have witnessed dry spell and some districts witnessed deficient rainfall.

As many as 16 districts in the State had received dry spell and 10 districts received normal rainfall (-19% to + 19%). Andhra Pradesh has recorded a deficient rainfall of 23.6% so far.

From June 1st till July 5th, about 88.7 mm of rainfall was recorded. Actually, the normal rainfall should be 115.9 mm. Due to the shortage in rainfall, the reservoirs have been getting low inflows. Meanwhile, authorities are releasing water from the reservoirs to cater to the drinking water needs of the people as well as the irrigation needs of farmers.

In view of the kharif season, authorities have to release water from reservoirs to help the farmers. Consequently, water level in the reservoirs was dropping further. There are 108 major, medium and minor reservoirs in the State.

All these reservoirs put together, gross water storage capacity at Full Reservoir Level (FRL) is 983.49 tmcft. However, the reservoirs currently have 367.4 tmcft of water (37 per cent). If the State does not record normal rainfall this season, the water levels will go down further in the reservoirs.

-11 Major reservoirs levels slipped below level

Water levels in all the major reservoirs in the State have gone down steeply except the Nagarjuna Sagar project.

Nagarjuna Sagar currently has 148.37 tmcft water against its full storage capacity of 312.05 tmcft. The project has 47 per cent water against its overall capacity. However, water level in the remaining major reservoirs such as Prakasam Barrage (NTR district), Pulichintala Project (Palnadu-NTR), Thotapalli Regulator (Parvathipuram Manyam), Yeleru (Kakinada), Gundlakamma Reservoir (Prakasam), Kandaleru (SPR Nellore), Tandava (Anakapalli), Penna Ahobilam Balancing Reservoir (Anantapur), Gandikota (YSR), Srisailam (Nandyal) and Somasila (SPSR Nellore) dropped significantly.

While the total capacity of all these 11 major reservoirs is 482.13 tmcft, these reservoirs currently have 172.58 tmcft water as on Wednesday (July 5).

One of the major reservoirs in the State - Srisailam reservoir’s water level had reached the dead storage level. This project’s full storage capacity is 215.81 tmcft, but now the project has only 33.53 tmcft water which is only 15.54 per cent of its total capacity.

Similarly, Yeleru reservoir’s water level to declined to 8.75 tmcft from the full capacity of 24.11 tmcft.

Somasila reservoir’s water level dropped to 28 tmcft from its full storage capacity of 78 tmcft. Water level in Kandaleru project has gone down to 21.56 tmcft. This project FRL is 68.03 tmcft.

Likewise, water levels in several major, medium and minor projects/reservoirs dropped steeplys. Meanwhile, the water levels in the reservoirs outside AP also are not so promising.

There are 8 major and minor reservoirs in Krishna and Godavari Basin outside AP State such as Almatti, Jayakwadi, Jurala, Narayanpur, Yellampalli project, Sri Ram Sagar and Ujjaini projects.

Total storage capacity of all these projects/reservoirs is 608.34 tmcft. However, presently these projects have only 170.56 tmcft water. The water will be released into the major and medium projects in AP only after these projects get water to their full capacity.