KARIMNAGAR: Sudden flooding inundated the Scheduled Caste (SC) Colony of Mannemapally village in Thimmapur mandal early on Sunday. The incident occurred when the bund of the Sriramsagar Project (SRSP) D-4 canal breached near the Peechupally cross regulator, causing water to gush into the colony and submerge houses.
Former sarpanch Medi Anjaiah alerted irrigation authorities about the situation. Superintending Engineer (SE) of Irrigation Circle-2, P Ramesh, along with staff and local police, rushed to the site. Manakondur MLA Kavvampally Satyanarayana also visited the area to assess the situation and check on the affected residents.
SE Ramesh explained to the media that water was being released into the SRSP canal system from the Thotapally reservoir. He suspected that downstream villagers or farmers had released excess water from the main canal into a minor canal. This led to an overload, causing the bund to collapse.
“The canal has a designed capacity of 200 cusecs, but it was overwhelmed by a flow of 300 cusecs, which caused the breach,” Ramesh stated, noting that the ongoing release of water from reservoirs into canals for the Rabi crop season contributed to the situation.
Restoration work on the breached bund is currently underway, but the SE emphasised that full restoration cannot be completed until the canal is emptied of water. Meanwhile, irrigation authorities suspect that certain villagers may have intentionally diverted excess water from the main canal into the minor canal by operating the cross regulator, leading to the breach.
Authorities plan to register a case against the suspects to prevent similar incidents in the future.