Acute water shortage on Tirumala

Tirumala: Unlike last year, monsoons were not generous enough as the abode of Lord Venkateswara received partial rains under the influence of the south-west monsoon, while the north-east monsoons showed no mercy at all.

This year, Tirumala recorded only 504 mm rainfall so far, as against the 2,185 mm recorded last year till December-end.
Tirumala needs an average at least 32 lakh gallons of water per day.

During week-ends the demand escalates to 40 lakh gallons and on festive occasions, it increases to 50 lakh gallons a day.

Two years ago, against the water storing capacity of 13,826 lakh gallons of the TTD’s Gogarbha dam, Akasa Ganga dam, Papavinasanam dam, Pasupudhara and Kumaradgara dams, the water stored in them nose-dived to a mere 890 gallons as the temple town experienced severe dry conditions.

The TTD used to get 5 MLD from Kalyani dam, which was hardly sufficient to meet water needs of devotees. Later, Telugu-Ganga water was supplied to Tirumala from the Tirupati municipal corporation with the permission of the State government.

The temple administration due to inadequate water supply, appealed to government for release of 10 MLD from the Kalyani dam.

The government was not in a position to supply huge quantity to Tirumala in view of the meeting the drinking water needs of Tirupati.
Vexed with the government’s failure to allot water, the TTD got Varuna Yagam performed last year to invoke the blessings of Rain Gods.

Perhaps as a result of the yagam, the heavens opened up for a month filling all reservoirs on Tirumala to the brim. The inflows into Gogarbha dam were so heavy that the officials had to release water from it.

Same is the case with Kumaradhara, Pasupudhara and Papanasam reservoirs.
With acute water shortage, the TTD officials pinned their hopes on the recent Nada cyclone, but it poured cold waters on their plans.
According to Met officials Sarmishta, under the influence of south-west monsoons, this year 340 mm of rainfall was received as against the 409 mm last year.

Similarly, under the influence of the north-east monsoons, the abode of Lord Balaji received only 17 mm this year as against 1,586 mm last year.

The water stored in Papanasanam was measured as 3,632 lakh gallons as against its full capacity of 5,240 lakh gallons, while Gogarbha dam has 34 lakh gallons as against its full capacity of 2833 lakh gallons.

Water level in Akasa Ganga dam almost touched rock bottom as against its full capacity to store 685 lakh gallons.
In Kumaradhara, 2274 lakh gallons of water is stored as against its full capacity to store 4,258 lakh gallons.

The water level in Pasupudhara is only 7.92 per cent of its full storage capacity of 1,287 lakh gallons.

Under the prevailing situation, the total quantity of water will last to meet the drinking water needs of pilgrims of 150 days only.
As a precautionary measure, the TTD is implementing austerity measures to conserve water.

It stopped water supply to some of the hotels and advising the devotees to use water sparingly.