Two days after the Tungabhadra dam gate washout in Karnataka, the engineers are still struggling to make repairs and keep the reservoir water level to its original capacity. Meanwhile, concerns are being raised about water shortage both for drinking and irrigation in the coming summer season.
Concerns for drinking water and irrigation
Farmers in the upstream areas are worried about irrigating their fields due to draining of water for dam repair works. Meanwhile, people living in downstream areas especially in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool are worried about flooding. The Andhra govt has already issued a warning for people living in low lying areas.
Gate number 19 of Tungabhadra reservoir was washed away at Hospet on Saturday evening triggering concerns in both Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. With the damage to the 71-year-old dam, authorities were forced to release the water to ease the pressure on other gates of the dam.
What is the situation as of now?
Authorities say the installation of the new gate at the dam will start from Tuesday evening.
At present, a decision has been made to install a temporary gate before the water runs out of the reservoir .
A team of technicians will lower the gate in the water and try to install it. A team of technicians from Narayan Engineers, Hindustan Engineers, Jindal are at work.
If the installation of the gate is successful, a huge amount of water will be saved easing concerns of water shortage.
Officials said that almost 13 Thousand Million Cubic Feet (TMC) of water was exhausted in the last two days. On August 10, there was approximately 105 TMC of water stored in the dam.
But till Tuesday, 91.979 TMC water is left in the dam.
Challenges if dam gate not restored on time
The two main challenges faced by Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. With the release of water from the dam, there have been flood concern in downstream areas, while Karnataka braces for water scarcity challenge. Citing experts, Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar argued that there is a necessity to release water so as to repair the dam.
The Karnataka Deputy CM also termed the potential water scarcity as critical. Shivakumar said he will consult farmers and the local over the issue, but the final decision will be guided by the recommendations of experts, according to a report in Banglore Mirror
Water capacity of Tungabhadra Dam
The reservoir has a water storage capacity of 105.788 TMC. While the dam has an inflow of 36 thousand cusecs of water, there is an outflow of 1.14 lakh cusecs of water from the dam to the river. 10,000 cusecs of water is being released into the canals.