VIJAYAWADA: Water levels in two major projects in Krishna River —Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar — have become a cause for concern. Though the water level at the Almaty project on Krishna river in Karnataka is near full, the water level in the two major projects on the river in the State is far less than last year. On Saturday, water level in Srisailam was 20.56 tmcft while it was 158.63 tmcft last year the same day. In the case of Nagarjunasagar, it was 115.78 tmcft as against 139.44 tmcft last year. When it comes to Pulichintala, with no outflows from Nagarjunasagar and comparatively less rainfall in the catchment area of the Pulichintala project, the water level is very low. As against 6.01 tmcft last year, the water level stands at 3.62 tmcft in Pulichintala. The low level of water in all the major reservoirs is giving sleepless nights to the farmers in the respective ayacuts.
“It is not just irrigation water, the farmers are worried about, but also drinking water in the coming days, if the situation continues,” Y Nagendranath, a farmer leader in Krishna delta pointed out. He said that going by past experiences, Karnataka will not release the water downstream of Almaty. Even if there was cloudburst and deluge upstream of Srisailam, Telangana would be pumping out that water for its own needs, before even it reaches Srisailam, he explained. Farmer leaders in Rayalaseema districts are wondering where has the promised Krishna water gone. They say from Pattiseema, water was released to Prakasam Barrage and subsequently released to eastern and western canal systems of Krishna delta.
An equal amount of water that needs to be saved up in Srisailam and which caters to the needs of Rayalseema has not happened, they pointed out and wondered how the State is going to solve the issue. Repeated efforts to contact irrigation department officials proved futile.