Khandepar river gets lifeline from Selaulim dam

Ponda: After the repair of a defective valve at Pajimol Sanguem, officials attached to the water resources department (WRD) at the Selaulim dam have released water for rejuvenating the Khandepar river.

Water has begun pouring into the Kalay river, flowing downstream towards the Khandepar river and will take a week to reach Opa waterworks. The Selaulim dam’s water was released on Saturday afternoon.

The water was initially released on Thursday, but a sudden leakage in a valve attached to the 13km pipeline that takes Selaulim water to the Kalay river halted the supply.

A team of the WRD attached to Sub-division II of Work Division X at Pajimol, Sanguem, carried out the repairs.

About 48 million litres per day (MLD) of water from Selaulim dam is being released to augment the level of the Khandepar river, when the water level at Opa waterworks dips in summer.

Jason Menezes, a WRD executive engineer at the dam, said the supply was resumed on Saturday afternoon and the water has begun surging into the Kalay river.

Nivruti Parsekar, an executive engineer of the water division at Opa waterworks, said that water will reach the Khandepar river by next week as it takes time to spread into the six bandharas on the Kalay and reach the Khandepar.

While the Opa waterworks get 48 MLD of water from the Selaulim dam, another 70 MLD of water is being poured by the Ganjem Water Scheme.

When the need arises, water stocked in bandharas is released.

The 24 bandharas on Khandepar, Kalay, and Udnhoi rivers collectively store 35.32 lakh cubic metres of water.


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