ADILABAD: With the arrival of water from Kaddam reservoir to their fields, the farmers in Adilabad district are happy like never before.
Thanks to the State government’s efforts in ensuring the supply of Kaddam water to those areas that fall under the reservoir’s ayacut region, the ryots have managed to take up paddy cultivation in around 50,000 acres this Vanakalam.
A reservoir built on River Kadem, a tributary river of Godavari near Kademm mandal in Nirmal district, the Kaddam reservoir has an ayacut of about 68,158 acres that cover Kaddam, Dasturabad, Jannaram, Dandapelli, Luxettipet and Hazipur mandals in Nirmal and Mancherial districts.
It has to be mentioned here that water from the Kaddam dam is being released, through its left and right canals, despite that the district has not yet started receiving decent rainfall.
While 17 mandals in Nirmal district have recorded a deficiency in rainfall recorded, the situation is the same for three mandals in Mancherial district.
However, the authorities concerned continue the release of water to help the ryots who have been in distress due to the lockdown situation.
According to sources, this has been possible with heavy rains in the upstream areas of the dam, and the catchment areas of the river, mainly situated in Maharashtra.
It was on July 29 that the Khanapur MLA Rekha Naik, Mancherial MLA N Divakar Rao and District Collector Musharraf Ali Faruqui released water from the Kaddam to the reservoir’s right and left canals by opening one of its gate after the inflows increased.
According to sources, the reservoir’s current water level is 697 feet, as opposed to its full reservoir level of (FRL) 700 feet.
While around 250 cusecs of water is being released into the left canal, called Saraswathi canal which covers most of the area, around 10 cusecs is being released into right canal, with which as many as 83 tanks would be filled soon.
Speaking to Express, B Srinivas, a farmer of Jannaram mandal, said that they have managed to take up cultivation of paddy on a grand scale with the availability of sufficient water.