ONGOLE: Farmers in Gundlakamma ayacut area are fearing water scarcity after water level went down at Kandula Obul Reddy Gundlakamma Reservoir following damage to one of the spillway gates. The water level has come down to around 0.5 tmc out of 3.87 tmc storage capacity by Sunday. S Subba Rao, a farmer from Maddipadu mandal, expressed his fear about lack of irrigation waters for Kharif crop. “Just a few days back the reservoir was almost full and we all thought that this Kharfi we will get sufficient irrigation water for our crops. Now, as the reservoir seems nearly empty,” he expressed his agony.
M Srinivasa Rao, a tenant farmer from SN Padu mandal said that after a long gap, the reservoir was filled to its maximum capacity. Now, the reservoir is almost empty, he added. Around 80,000 acres of ayacut is dependent on the project for irrigation. Recently, one of the spillway gates was washed away due to heavy inflows from the upper catchment areas of the river last Wednesday night.
Since then, the water has been flowing downstream. Though the Water Resource department engineers rushed to the spot and began repair works, but in vain. Collector AS Dinesh Kumar visited the reservoir on Friday. Minister Ambati Rambabu inspected the dam and damaged spillway gates on Saturday.
After discussing with the engineering experts, it was cleared that to start the repair works, the reservoir should be emptied to some extent. Further, the engineering wing allowed the reservoir waters downstream by lifting other six gates to kick start the spillway repair works. Gundlakamma project chief engineer Muralinadh Reddy and executive engineer Murali Mohan explained that for the maintenance and repairs of spillway gates, proposals worth Rs 88 lakh were submitted to the government a few months ago. The government had sanctioned the funds, but works were not taken up following some issues.