The ongoing summer season, coupled with drought conditions, is having an adverse impact on the district with many of the tanks getting dried up. Many of them are small tanks meeting the drinking water and irrigation requirements locally, thereby preventing the dependency on others.
According to sources, more than 10 tanks in Patancheru mandal alone had dried up in the past few days. These tanks include Sultanpur, Kishtareddypet, Chitkul, Rudraram and Aminpur. The tank located at Aminpur, said to be one of the biggest in area spread over about 100 acres has also almost dried up. A part of the tank has been reportedly encroached upon .
Kothacheruvu located at Sadaviapet mandal has also dried up and the bottom of the tank can be seen . More than 100 acres used to get cultivated under the ayacut of this tank. The water levels at Meligi project in the same mandal have also dwindled to the minimum level where around 1,500 acres of land used to get cultivated with the irrigation supplied from this tank. For the past few years these tanks are not being filled in the rainy season as the rainfall is insufficient.
There are about 582 tanks which irrigate more than 100 acres ayacut followed by 5,175 tanks supplying irrigation to ayacut in less than 100 acres. The total ayacut that comes under minor irrigation is about 2.26 lakh acres followed by 27,000 acres under minor irrigation.
Of these, about 4,000 tanks are dried up or water is below spill level in about 1,000 tanks. The prevailing situation was attributed to deficit rainfall and lack of run off water during rainy season as the ground water levels were depleted at many places. No irrigation was supplied to second crop during current year whereas irrigation was supplied to 15,000 acres for second crop during last year.
“ The rainwater gets dried up even before it reaches the tanks. Even the rainfall is not up to the required level,'' said Yadagiri a farmer.
“The water levels are slightly better at tanks located in Medak revenue division whereas many tanks located at Siddipet area were completely dried up. More than 90 per cent of tanks are dried up and though some tanks water have some water, it can be neither lifted nor transported from there,'' said a senior irrigation official.
