Heavy water leakage from Jurala crest gates worries farmers over water availability for Yasangi

The leakage has been attributed to rope damage in the crest gates

Hyderabad: Rabi farmers under the Jurala project have been voicing concern over the wastage of precious water due to unattended leakage from the crest gates. Of late, the volume of leakage has assumed serious proportions. Water is leaking from 12 of the 62 flood gates resulting in substantial loss of water. This situation is particularly alarming as the Yasangi farmers would require irrigation support for at least another 120 days.

Officials claim that the leaking flow is only around 100 cusecs, however, farmers argue that the water wastage amounts to 700 to 800 cusecs per day. The reservoir currently holds about 7 TMCs of water, compared to its gross storage capacity of over nine TMCs. The leakage has been attributed to rope damage in the crest gates. Due to the lack of repairs, the rubber seals on these gates have corroded and fallen off, thus adding to the problem. The water leakage issues have also raised serious concerns about the safety of the project.

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Farmers have urged irrigation officials to take action to address these problems and prevent further loss of water and potential damage to the project infrastructure. Despite the project’s rehabilitation being entrusted to a private agency almost a year ago, no headway has been made in arresting the leakages. The project was flooded till the end of November.

The Jurala Project on the Krishna River had a full reservoir level (FRL) of 1,045 ft, with a full capacity of 11.94 TMC originally.

As of August 2013, the project had an estimated water holding capacity of 9.74 TMC and it had come down further due to siltation. The project irrigates 1,04,774 acres through the left main canal and 6824 acres through the right main canal in Mahbubnagar district. It is giving supplementation support to 30,000 acres of tail-end ayacut.

Engineer-in-Chief (Operations and Maintenance), Vijay Bhaskar Reddy, who also holds additional charge as Chief Engineer of the Jurala Project, stated that the irrigation department was actively addressing the issue. He noted that the volume of water leaking from the project was only around 100 cusecs, but acknowledged that every drop was precious and efforts are being made to arrest the leak. The works were already entrusted to a private agency, he said.