Telangana: Drying up reservoirs in Siddipet worry farmers
The full reservoir level of Kondapochamma Sagar, built in the Gajwel constituency, is 15 TMC, but it just had 4.5 TMC of water.
Siddipet: Uncertainty in pumping water into four reservoirs built as part of the Kaleshwarm Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) in Siddipet district is worrying farmers in the erstwhile Medak district and also part of Yadadri-Bhongir district.
Since water was let out of the Medigadda barrage, built across the Godavari to pump water into these reservoirs via Mid Manair, the possibility of pumping water from here appears bleak under the present circumstances. The irrigation authorities were planning to pumping water from the Yellampally project if it received enough inflows from the upstream Godavari. However, there were no signs of receiving water from upstream as of now since the Babli project in Maharastra, SRSP, and Yellampally in Telangana were still empty even after the southwest monsoon became active. The four reservoirs built in Siddipet were Ananthagiri Reservoir, Ranganayaka Sagar, Kondapochamma Sagar and Mallanna Sagar.
The Ananthagiri reservoir, built between Siddipet and Rajanna Siricilla districts to meet the irrigation needs of both districts, had 0.73 TMC of water against its full storage capacity of 3.5TMC. Parts of Siddipet town, Siddipet rural, Chinnakodur, Narayanraopet, Cheriyala, Maddur and Nanganur mandals of Siddipet district, and Ilanthakunta, Mustabad and Tangallapally mandals in Sircilla district would get irrigation water from Ananthagiri. The proposed ayacut under the project is 30,000 acres, but they could provide irrigation water to 15,000 acres as work on many canals is in progress. The water will be lifted from Ananthagiri to Ranganayaka Sagar, built at Chandlapur close to Siddipet town. The project is a source of irrigation water for parts of Siddipet, Siddipet rural, Narayanraopet, Chinnakodur, Nanganur, Dubbak, Kondapak, and Kukunurpally mandals. The project had 0.70 TMC of water against its full reservoir level of 3 TMC. The water available now would be sufficient to meet the drinking water needs. The proposed ayacut under the project is 1.10 lakh acres. However, the irrigation department could provide water for 65,000 acres, owing to the incompletion of some canals.
The full reservoir level of Kondapochamma Sagar, built in the Gajwel constituency, is 15 TMC, but it just had 4.5 TMC of water. The proposed ayacut under the project is 2.85 lakh acres in Mulugu, Jagadevpur and Markook mandals in Gajwel constituency and Turkapally, Aler and Rajapet mandals in Yadadri-Bhongir district, but they could provide irrigation water to only 60,000 acres until the last Yasangi as the works of the canals were still in progress.
The biggest reservoir under KLIS was built in Dubbak constituency with a storage capacity of 50 TMC. The project had just a little over 8 TMC of water now. The proposed ayacut under the project is 1.25 lakh acres. Apart from this, these reservoirs would impound 2,000 minor irrigation tanks across the erstwhile Medak district apart from providing water into streams such as Peddavagu, Kudavelly, Haldi and other streams which had dozens of check dams on them. With the delay in pumping of water, the farmers also delayed the taking up of paddy nurseries. Farmers in Siddipet and Medak district will take up paddy cultivation in 7 lakh acres which may take a hit with the delay in pumping.
Speaking to Telangana Today, a farmer from Chandlapur, Lingam, said farmers in Siddipet used to look up at the sky for rains until four years ago, after which former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao built the Ranganayaka Sagar. Since then, the face of agriculture had changed like never before. However, they were now forced to look up at the sky again due to the lack of water in the projects, he said.
