The Somasila dam in Nellore district, has received record inflows with the overall storage reaching 58.4 tmcft on Saturday morning.
The dam continues to receive heavy inflows under the influence of copious rains in the upper catchment areas in Rayalaseema districts and also due to the floods in streams and rivulets there. Irrigation Department officials say that the Somasila dam was receiving flood waters at the rate of 2 tmc per day for the last few days. This may continue for the next two to three days, depending on the weather situation in upper catchment areas.
V. Soma Sekhar, Superintending Engineer, Somasila project, said that they were releasing 11,000 cusecs water from the reservoir to the Kandaleru dam. With storage increasing in Somasila, it would be possible to meet the full irrigation requirements under its ayacut which runs into nearly 5.8 lakh acres. The full reservoir level (FRL) of Somasila dam is stated to be 100.58 meters with its gross storage capacity being 78 tmc. The maximum storage of 73 tmc was recorded in 2010. This year also, the level is expected to increase considerably in view of the heavy rains in upper reaches. The inflows have considerably increased at the Rajolibanda project near Nandyal and also the Penna river head regulator at Adinimmapalli in the last few days, from where Somasila receives inflows. Also, various streams have been in spate and maximum inflows were received from Kundu, Papagni and Sagileru rivulets. After the increase in water levels in reservoirs, the irrigation officials are confident that the full water requirements of farmers could be met this year. Already, the district level irrigation advisory board under the chairmanship of the district collector has given its nod for release of water from Somasila to its ayacut farmers. With the improvement in the situation, the issue of releasing water for the ayacut under the Kandaleru reservoir project is also likely to come up for active consideration.
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