Ujani dam water level in negative, 15 villages in crisis, plantations wither

Pune: Water in the Ujani dam at Indapur tehsil has receded to -41.99% of the total dead storage capacity of 66.67TMC, leaving as many as 15 villages with a population of over 20,000 in a dire situation. Unable to pump water, villagers are facing an acute water shortage. The affected villages are situated in the dam’s backwaters and their crops depended wholly on the water supply from the dam.

Superintending engineer of Ujani dam Dheeraj Sali told TOI, “At present, the dam has 41TMC water (live storage) and the dead storage is 21 TMC. The existing live storage is for drinking water purposes of Solapur district. The next rotation (release) of water from the dam is due in May. The backwater villages are reeling under a crisis and will face further issues as summer progresses.”The Ujani dam could store 117TMC of water and was one of the largest dams in the state. About 66.67TMC of the total capacity was dead storage. Last year, the dam did not fill up because of lack of rainfall.Meanwhile, sources said many farmers were using earth movers to dig pits in the dam bed in search of water.A farmer from Dalaj village and president of the Ujani Dharangrast Bachao Kruti Samiti, Arvind Jagtap, told TOI, “The situation is grim in the 15 villages due to water shortage. Crops are badly affected and some farmers have abandoned their plantations.”Tillers in the villages echoed the sentiment. They blamed the state irrigation department for unscientifically releasing dam water into the Bhima river under political pressure.Jagtap said, “A section of politicians from Solapur put pressure on the irrigation department and forced them to release around 15TMC water in each rotation to their district for drinking purposes. As a result, the water level of the dam receded quickly. Resultantly, backwater villages’ farmers who pump water from the dam are suffering.”Sali refuted the claim. “We need to release a minimum of 5TMC water into the Bhima river. It is only then that the water can flow over 240km and reach the level of the lifting point in Solapur city. We assess the situation before releasing water into the river.”Yashwant Wafh, a farmer from Takrarwadi, who was watering his pomegranate plantations through a water tanker, said, “The Solapur Municipal Corporation should complete the work of laying pipelines for drinking water at the earliest. It has been pending for the last few years. If the project is completed, the irrigation department will save a significant quantity of water and divert it for farming purposes to Pune and Solapur districts.”Ujani’s water level goes up after release of water from dams in Pune district. However, there was low rainfall in the catchment areas last year and most of these dams failed to release water, said irrigation department officials.Dagdu Kapse, a sugar cane farmer from Awatewadi village, had to abandon his crop due to the water crisis. “The irrigation department and the tehsil administration should have worked in tandem to guide farmers into changing their crop patterns. It did not happen and most farmers opted for regular crops. All of them are at the receiving end now since they have no water to save their crops,” he added.
Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, Location Guesser and Mini Crossword.