Kaddam project reaches near dead storage, farmers worried about crop holiday

Irrigation officials are said to have recently advised farmers here not to depend on water from the project to raise crops in the Yasangi season.

Hyderabad: After a crop holiday, something which farmers in the State had forgotten for the nine years, was declared for farmers under the ayacut of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project, indications are that another one is in the offing for farmers under the ayacut of the Kaddam Narayana Reddy Project in Kaddampeddur mandal centre.

Irrigation officials are said to have recently advised farmers here not to depend on water from the project to raise crops in the Yasangi season. They have said that the project has reached near dead storage levels due to leakage of water, worrying the farmers.

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Divisional Engineer A Bojidas said the water level project was 4.077 tmc as against the storage capacity of 7.603 tmc. The dead storage of the project is 3 tmc and remaining 1.077 tmc of water can be used for agriculture needs. The water level of the project drastically declined following the damage to the gates caused by the unprecedented floods in this monsoon.

The authorities clarified that a decision with regard to the announcement of crop holiday was not made so far. A meeting was held in Hyderabad a few days back over the condition of the project. The decisions of the meeting have not been communicated to Irrigation officials herer till Monday, Bojidas said.

Due to the flash floods in September, the counterweight of gate number 15 was washed away. As a result, the project lost 1,500 cusecs of water a day for a month and the water level reached a drastically low level. About 6 tmc of water was leaked from the project downstream owing to the dysfunctional gate, sources said.

The officials said a proposal was sent to the government seeking repair of the project and for replacing new ones with old ones at an estimated cost of Rs.5.8 crore. The funds were yet to be sanctioned, resulting in more loss of water from the project. Officials said the works on the repair would begin once funds were released.

However, the latest advice of officials has left the farmers in lurch. The farmers expressed concern over the possibilities of the crop holiday. They requested the government to take steps to address the challenge at the earliest. Various crops are grown in 65,000 acres in Vanakalam and Yasangi seasons, as per officials. A total of 7 tmc of water is required for irrigating crops in the Yasangi season.