Farmers cheer as Srisailam dam swells

Hyderabad: Telangana State government is set to supply adequate water for irrigation in the coming rabi season which begins from January, by utilising good inflows into the Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar reservoirs.

While the arrangements are in full swing to open crest gates at Srisailam by Thursday morning, the TS government is busy to store the discharged water at Nagarjunasagar reservoir and other water bodies to overcome irrigation and drinking water problems in the coming agricultural season.

Water levels at Srisailam reservoir has reached at 884.50 feet as against 885 feet FRL (Full Reservoir Level) by Wednesday evening. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments have already began hydel power generation at power plants established with 2000 MW and 700 MW capacities respectively. The present inflows at Srisialam reservoir was 1.50 lakh cusecs and discharging stands at 80 ,000 cusecs after power generation every day.

After the discharge, nearly 70,000 cusecs of water is stored in the reservoir. Water levels would reach the FRL in a few hours, top officials of State Irrigation department told The Hans India that all the discharged water after power generation has already been released to the Nagarjunasagar Left canals and store them in the ponds and other water bodies in the downstream areas.

Once the crest gates are opened, the heavy inflows would be stored in Nagarjunasagar reservoir. The Sagar FRL was 590 feet with 312 tmc ft storage capacity. At present, the water levels in the Sagar was 525 feet. After the gates are opened, water level would increase in the Sagar reservoir which would help to store more water for irrigation and drinking water needs.

Already 250 tmc ft of water is available for Telangana at Sagar reservoir. Another 50 tmc ft of water would also be available after the release of water from Srisailam. Officials said that 250 tmc ft of water be utilised for irrigation needs and 50 tmc ft for drinking water purpose in the coming months.

Irrigation officials were also deployed at Sagar to monitor the flood water coming from Srisailam in the next one week and to store the same for future needs.

Due to water scarcity, the total acreage of farming has come down drastically in the ongoing kharif season across Krishna basin. Farming activity was taken up only in 60 per cent of the total estimation of 3 lakh acres.

To compensate and provide relief to the farmers, government has decided to utilise available water for irrigation purpose at optimum levels, officials added.