Vijayawada: Krishna water going waste into sea for want of storage facility

Vijayawada: Lack of water storage facility between Pulichintala project and Prakasam barrage is resulting in wastage of hundreds of TMCs water annually. The irrigation officials on Sunday released 11,226 cusecs of water into sea from Prakasam barrage. They released a meagre 1471 cusecs to canals for irrigation purposes to Krishna delta.

Tussle between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana over construction of irrigation projects on Krishna river by AP and power generation by Telangana once again highlighted the need for construction of a reservoir upstream of Prakasam barrage for storage of water to meet the requirements of the people of Delta region. The water released from Pulichintala reservoir reaching Prakasam barrage, which has storage capacity of only 3 TMC. The irrigation authorities are releasing the water from Prakasam barrage into sea by lifting the gates. Last year over 500 TMC water was released into sea from Prakasam barrage.

Pulichintala reservoir has capacity of 45.77 TMC. The Delta region needs one more reservoir between Pulichintala reservoir and Prakasam barrages. Keeping in view of the need, the erstwhile TDP government had decided to construct a barrage at a cost of Rs1,100 crore connecting Vaikuntapuram village of Guntur district and Damuluru village in Krishna district. The TDP government had called in tenders also.

But the YSRCP government had set aside the proposals and kept in cold storage.Alla Venkata Gopala Krishna Rao, president of the water users association, Andhra Pradesh, said the YSRCP government should immediately restore the process for construction of Vaikuntapuram barrage. He said Krishna water is released into sea due to lack of water storage facility downstream of Pulichintala reservoir. He said the 10 TMC water can be used for both irrigation and drinking water needs of the Delta region with the construction of the Vaikuntapuram barrage.

Due to lack of storage facility, the Krishna water was released into sea from Prakasam barrage for the last two weeks. The Telangana Genco has started power generation about two weeks ago at Sagar and Pulichintala reservoirs and releasing the water.

The farmers of Krishna delta in Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam district are not able to start the agriculture season till now in most areas due to late monsoon. In this backdrop, the Telangana irrigation authorities are releasing water from Pulichintala reservoir and it is of no use to the Delta farmers. Farmers of Krishna delta are eagerly waiting for the construction of Vaikuntapuram barrage. The stored waters can be used for agriculture purposes in Rabi season also. District in-charge minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy announced for the construction of Vaikuntapuram barrage in November 2020. But there is no progress yet on the project.