VIJAYAWADA: The last 16 years’ average of water utilisation by various schemes under the Pothireddypadu Head Regulator stood at a mere 76.5 TMC per year, way lesser than the 114 TMC required annually to cater to the needs of the parched Rayalaseema districts. As a long-term measure to this decades-old problem, especially with the number of flood days dwindling and in the wake of the uncertainty over Krishna water floods as upper riparian states are in the process of augmenting their projects, the State government has proposed the Rayalaseema Drought Mitigation projects.
According to the water utilisation statement of the Pothireddypadu head regulator from 2004-05 to 2019-20, except in 2018-19 and 2019-20, the minimum required water could not be drawn. The average drawn water per annum stood at a mere 66.51 TMC between 2004-05 and 2017-18. “As per the statement for the last sixteen years, it is clear that except in the last two consecutive years, we could not draw the allocated water of 114 TMC from Srisailam Reservoir through PRP during flood days.
Last year, we had a total inflow of 889 TMC to the spillway of which we were able to tap 179.3 TMC only, effectively making around 610 TMC go unutilised into the sea. Though the water was available during the flood days, the reservoirs of Rayalaseema, which have a capacity to an extent of 120 TMC, could not be filled due to lack of discharging capacity of the canals,” a water resources department official explained.
For the record, the present drawing capacity of various canals is — Srisailam Right Bank Canal: 21,000 cusecs, Telugu Ganga Project: 1,500 cusecs, Galeru Nagari Sujala Sravanti: 20,000 cusecs and KC canal supplementation: 12,500 cusecs. With these capacities, a maximum of 3 TMC of water can be drawn, that too if the canal runs full with no obstructions, according to the officials. Factoring this with an average of 20 flood days every year, the cumulative utilisation capacity from Pothireddpadu is only 60 TMC approximately.
As the projects in Rayalaseema, which were designed almost two decades ago, are completely dependent on rain and Krishna water, the officials proposed the Rayalaseema Drought Mitigation Project. “In order to bridge the gap between the allocated water and water that can be drawn in the flood days, the project, through which it is proposed to utlise up to 8 TMC per day during the flood days, is proposed,” the officials added.
The project envisages to tap the assured water by increasing the carrying capacity of the canals, which can be made possible only by improving the present carrying capacity of SRBC and GNSS. It may be noted that the water resources department had issued administrative sanction for `6,829.15 crore in May for Rayalaseema Lift Scheme, up-gradation of Pothireddypadu canal system, lining of GNSS and SRBC canal and other allied works. The works have been divided into six packages. The lift scheme tender has been sent for judicial preview, following which the bidding will begin. The other tenders would be floated after mobilising funds.