Water woes: Tungabhadra dam faces water loss and upgrade delays
Munirabad (Koppal): It has been a year since the 19th crest gate of the Tungabhadra reservoir was swept away on Aug 10, 2024.
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Still, there are no signs that the old crest gates will be replaced.
Due to the deteriorated condition of all 33 crest gates, the current water storage is limited to 80 tmcft, when compared to the total capacity of 101 tmcft. However, there are accusations that the Tungabhadra Board is still engaged in finalising the tender process.
By the end of July, over 100 tmcft flowed into Andhra Pradesh. However, chief engineer L Basavaraj assures that the crest gates will be replaced soon.
"Favourable monsoon conditions maintained water flow into the Tungabhadra River throughout July. Given the good rainfall, another 100 tmcft of water is likely to flow out," stated Tungabhadra Board sources.
The
, constructed 71 years ago, initially had a storage capacity of 133 tmcft. However, with half a tmcft of silt deposited annually, the dam's storage capacity decreased to 101 tmcft in the past thirty years.
The water loss resulting from silt deposits is the state's allocation. Consequently, a plan was initiated thirty years ago to develop a balancing reservoir near Navali village in Gangavathi taluk for its storage. The detailed project report (DPR) was completed and shared with the authorities of Andhra Pradesh. Technical approval was secured, with only the political decision remaining.
Nonetheless, former CM Basavaraj Bommai pointed out during his visit last year that the Siddaramaiah-led state govt has failed to take any action to speed up the process.
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He urged the CM to communicate with his counterparts in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to advance the construction of the parallel dam, which could save 28 tmcft of water yearly for the state.
Considering the annual yield of 400 tmcft from the Tungabhadra dam, the amount of water that will flow into Andhra Pradesh this year is estimated to be 280 tmcft. "Although the state can use half of this, we do not have any dams to store the extra water. If the Navali balancing reservoir was built, we could have expanded our irrigation area by using this water," lamented CA Galeppa, district president of Farmers' Association, Vijayanagara.
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