Poor rainfall leaves Singur reservoir with less than 3 TMC ft

Singur reservoir storage has fallen below 3 TMC ft for the first time in six years after receiving limited inflows this year. Poor rainfall has raised concerns over drinking water supplies, irrigation needs and the survival of wildlife during summer.

Sangareddy: The water level in Singur reservoir has fallen below 3 TMC ft for the first time in six years, against its full storage capacity of 29.91 TMC ft. Since the multipurpose project received just 3.56 TMC ft of water during the year, irrigation authorities could not store enough water in Singur.

The project had received meagre inflows during 2018-19 and 2019-20, when the water level touched dead storage. However, during the previous six rainy seasons, the Manjeera received copious inflows. In fact, the project witnessed the heaviest inflow in its 29-year history in 2025, when it received 237 TMC ft of water.

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However, irrigation officials, who restricted storage to just 16 TMC ft following the advice of the national dam safety review panel (DSRP), also released water downstream in phases to take up repair works. Although the irrigation department had planned to store some water this year to meet drinking water needs, poor rainfall in the Manjeera catchment area dashed its hopes.

As irrigation officials had said earlier, the water level is expected to fall to 1 TMC ft by the end of December, when both the HMWSSB and Mission Bhagiratha would switch to alternative sources to meet the drinking water needs of Hyderabad, the erstwhile Medak district and Kamareddy district.

Sangareddy town was already facing serious drinking water problems, while the situation was no different in other parts of the district. Apart from drinking and irrigation water shortages, the drying up of the Singur and Manjeera projects poses a serious threat to birds, crocodiles and other wildlife during the summer.