Officials for more water from Karnataka

kurnool: senior irrigation engineers and political leaders of the state have expressed fears that considerable volume of water released by the karnataka government from the lekhya dam near udipi would be lost by the time it reaches the gajuladinne reservoir in kurnool, which is about 700 km away. at present, there is about 22 tmc ft of water in the bhadra dam.the karnataka government on tuesday announced release of 1,300 cusecs of water from the lekhya dam, which is about 160 km from the bhadra dam. the water has to first reach the bhadra dam after evaporation and absorption by the river. the karnataka officials have assured that they would release whatever water they get at the bhadra dam. according to a senior irrigation official, of the 1,300 cusecs of water, at least 400 cusecs would be lost by the time it reaches the bhadra dam. the officials said during the course of the 340 km-stretch, at least 700 cusecs of water, out of the 1,300 cusecs released, will be either evaporated or absorbed by the river. the remaining 200 cusecs water will have to travel 200 km in the low level canal (llc) to reach gajuladinne project. of this stretch, more than 120 km of canal passes through karnataka, where farmers are likely to draw some water for agriculture purposes. there have been instances where karnataka farmers had damaged canal system even during rainy season as they have developed large areas of non-ayacut along the canal. adoni mla k meenakshi naidu said the karnataka farmers even damaged under tunnels (uts) of the canal to get water. he said that not a single drop of water could be expected through the llc. the canal first enters into his constituency in andhra pradesh. the mla has been fighting with karnataka officials for the last several years to release andhra pradesh’s quota of water near the border. meanwhile, the state government, according to officials, is confident that karnataka would release the state’s share of water. if that happens, kurnool water crisis can be solved by may last week. the irrigation engineers are saying that at least 20-30 cusecs of water would reach gajuladinne if police pickets were posted all along the canal in karnataka as well as in upper reaches in kurnool district to check any illegal tapping of water by farmers. senior irrigation officials in hyderabad constantly monitoring the situation, however, are keeping their fingers crossed. the government had demanded 2 tmc ft water. the official sources said that if karnataka had released at least 2,000 cusecs of water in one go, it would have helped in tackling the water problem in kurnool district. the ap government, however, would take up the matter once again with the karnataka government.