Work on the Yennehole Lift Irrigation project designed to irrigate about 1,500 hectares of land and recharge groundwater in and around nine villages of Karkala taluk has reached the final stages even as the Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd. (KNNL) planned to impound water in the barrage from next week.
A brainchild of Karkala MLA and Minister V. Sunil Kumar to address water woes during summer in parts of the taluk, the vented dam for the project is being built at Yennehole village across the Swarna near Ajekar in Karkala taluk. The 125 m long barrage with 19 vents is designed to impound water up to 4 m (1.85 million cubic metres). Though the region on the foothills of the Western Ghats receives abundant rainfall during the monsoon, it still faces severe water scarcity post-monsoon and hence, the barrage is being built. KNNL Executive Engineer K. Praveen told The Hindu that the work started in December 2019 by contractor G. Shankar has reached the final stages and the process to impound water can start next week. Testing of pumps will start thereafter and the project will be fully ready to supply water to crops after November 2022.
Nine villages around the barrage, Yennehole, Ajekar, Marne, Koranjibail, Belathotti, Hirgana, Devase, Mundal and Hermade, stand to benefit from the project with land getting water for the post-kharif season to grow pulses, vegetables and foodgrains for about four months, till February. Besides providing water for crops, the barrage is expected to recharge groundwater in its surroundings as well as 40 check dams.
Water can be pumped by a 450 hp pump towards the right-side catchment area through a 3-km-long rising main while two 935 hp pumps will pump water towards the left-side catchment area through the 9.93-km rising main to irrigate targeted land.
No land will get submerged in the backwater as the impounded water is stored only up to the existing bank-level of the river even as the spread goes up to 2.5 km behind the barrage. The storage and utilisation of water for the project was designed keeping in mind the water requirements of Udupi city too, the engineer said.
