Thanks to consistent inflow, the Tungabhadra reservoir near Hosapete in Vijayanagara district has received around 14 tmcft of water since the broken crest gate of the dam was fixed a week ago. The steadily rising water level in the reservoir has raised new hopes among farmers in the command area who were staring at a scarcity of water for their fields after one of the dam’s gates was washed away and copious amounts of water was lost.
According to the Tungabhadra Board data, the reservoir level was 1,627.54 feet with storage of 85.113 tmcft as against the full reservoir level (FRL) of 1,633 feet with a total capacity of 105.788 tmcft at 7.30 a.m. on Saturday.
At about 10.50 p.m. on August 10, crest gate number 19 was washed away as its chain link broke. As a result, water began gushing from the reservoir, which was full to the brim, at the rate of 36,000 cusecs. To reduce the pressure on the broken gate, the authorities immediately raised all the other 32 crest gates to an extent to release the water into the river.
At about 10.50 p.m. on August 10, crest gate number 19 was washed away as its chain link broke. As a result, water began gushing from the reservoir, which was full to the brim, at the rate of 36,000 cusecs. To reduce the pressure on the broken gate, the authorities immediately raised all the other 32 crest gates to an extent to release the water into the river.
Experts at work
Expert teams that arrived from Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai the next day held that the dam would have to be drained by half to take up the repair work. Accordingly, the spillway discharge was further increased to the rate of 1.4 lakh cusecs to drain the water as soon as possible.
The incident dashed the hopes of farmers in the Tungabhadra command area as they had prepared their land and were waiting for water to take up paddy transplantation.
However, an expert team headed by hydro-mechanical engineer N. Kannayya Naidu continued its attempt to fix a stop-log gate as a temporary measure to save water in the reservoir.
After a week of trial and error, the team finally succeeded in fixing the stop-log gate (a temporary gate created by placing five rectangular planks measuring 4 feet high and 60 feet wide on top of each other) in place of the damaged gate. Soon, all gates could be closed.
Increased spillway discharge for a week to facilitate the repair works had, however, caused a loss of around 35 tmcft of water in the reservoir. However, the continued precipitation, though mild, in the vast catchment area of the river upstream ensured the consistent inflow into the dam, resulting in the reservoir receiving about 14 tmcft of water in just seven days after the stop-log gate was fixed.
For one crop
“There will be no scarcity of water for one crop this year. Paddy transplantation at the upper reaches of the canal is already over. Farmers along the tail-end of the canals have now taken up transplantation. The crop needs water till November and the available water in the reservoir will be more than enough. However, it wouldn’t be sufficient for a second crop. We are hopeful that rain in the catchment area will continue and the reservoir will again be full so that we can get water for the second crop also,” Chamarasa Malipatil, honorary president of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, said.