The Karnataka government, which took stock of the poor rainfall in the Cauvery basin area and storage in the four major reservoirs, on Friday decided to convene a meeting of all elected representatives of the region on August 14 to decide on whether to release water to tanks or crops.
‘Historic low’
After attending the meeting chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Minister for Water Resources M.B. Patil told the presspersons that the storage in the four reservoirs is currently 43 tmcft. This is a “historic low” and 10 tmcft less compared to corresponding period last year, he said. He added that the basin area had received 54% deficient rainfall. The combined need of drinking water of Bengaluru, Mandya, Mysuru and surrounding areas was 34 tmcft and the water requirement for the area for kharif crops such as paddy, sugarcane, and semi-arid crops was 95 tmcft, said the Minister.
On release of water to Tamil Nadu, he said a total of 9 tmcft had been released to that State so far. “But this is well short of 20 tmcft as specified owing to deficient rain and its cascading effect on the storage in reservoirs.”
Water from Hemavati
The meeting also decided to release 1,000 cusecs of water through the high level canal from Hemavati reservoir for the next 10 days from Saturday, said A. Manju, district in charge Minister for Hassan.
The decision was taken following a letter from JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to release water from the Hemavati.
