VIJAYAWADA: Depleting Krishna river level, especially at Prakasam Barrage, has become a cause of concern for the fishermen community as they fear it will have an adverse impact on their livelihood in the coming days. A few of them, who ventured into the river on Tuesday, hoped to get a good catch because a ban on fishing in seas was in place.
But after witnessing the low water-level in Krishna river, they feared that their survival is under threat. Likely rains in the coming days is their only hope now. “We know of nothing except fishing activities. The depletion of water-level at Prakasam Barrage has not only financially hit us, but is also affecting various species of fish, whose numbers are on the decline due to extreme weather conditions,” said Ch Pratap.
He urged the irrigation department officials to evolve necessary steps in drawing water from nearby dams after taking their plight and economic condition into consideration.
A senior irrigation official told TNIE that 12 feet of water was usually maintained at Prakasam Barrage to cater to the drinking needs of Vijayawada and Guntur district.Lack of inflow from the Pulichintala multi-purpose project and the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir, in addition to the high mercury levels, is the reason for the falling water-level. As per the latest reports, the barrage has 1.06 TMC of water as against its capacity to hold 3.07 TMC, he said.
However, this does not have any impact on the drinking water supply to the residents of Vijayawada and its suburbs. In all, the city’s civic body is drawing 216 million litres of water per day for 12 lakh people, he said.
“At present, the Pulichintala project has water capacity of 0.45 TMC and there is no chance of drawing water from it. We are exploring all possibilities to draw water from Nagarjuna reservoir in the coming days,” the official added.
Meanwhile, the depletion has left its impact on the water sports organised in the Krishna river by the tourism department. “As of now, the (tourism) department will have no problem to ferry boats between Punnami Ghat and Bhavani Island. As usual, we are organising water sports, but majority of the public are staying away from the sporting activities. The low water-level has affected revenue, which is generally high during vacations,” said Bhavani Island Tourism Corporation Executive Director Umamaheswara Rao.
