Mission Kakatiya yielding good results across Telangana

Hyderabad: The Telangana government's flagship programme Mission Kakatiya, which has been launched for the revival of abandoned water bodies and tanks in 2015, is yielding results across the State.

The restoration of 46,600 tanks under the mission has created a strong ecosystem to strengthen the rural economy, particularly the agricultural and aqua-based activities in the State. The irrigation potential has increased after the revival of tanks. The mission also helped improve the groundwater levels in rural Telangana.

Mission Kakatiya has proved to be a successful, increasing the capacity of water bodies. The groundwater level also rose to 4.14 meters and help overcome water scarcity during the summer experienced by the Telangana region in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh.

State Irrigation officials said the rural Telangana relies on ponds and wells as a source of livelihood. Most farmers depend on ponds to irrigate their lands. Due to negligence by the successive governments in the united AP, almost all ponds were filled with silt. As a result, their water-holding capacity has been reduced. Due to lack of proper maintenance, feeder channels, drains and small water bodies had become non-functional.

Taking serious note of losing natural resources, the government has taken up Mission Kakatiya in 2015 to restore ponds in a phased manner. It decided to restore 20 per cent ponds every year and rejuvenated all ponds across the State in a five-year target.

The five-year long Mission Kakatiya resulted in revival of ponds that facilitated irrigation of 15 lakh acres. It helped restoration of 8.93 tmcft storage capacity. The government has spent Rs.5,309 crore on the programme exclusively.

Officials said the mission helped reduce erosion of water bodies by strengthening the embankment of ponds. As a result, the groundwater level has gone up to 4.14 meters.