Almatti reservoir, one of the biggest dams in the State, has reached its dead storage level. Also, its area that stored backwater now resembles a vast, barren land.
While the water level generally reaches Almatti’s maximum level of 519.6 m with 123.230 tmcft of water in the dam, the backwater covers over a 100 km area. When this large area is submerged, it is beneficial to fishermen.
Usually during the monsoon the vast land remains under water.
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Today, however, the same area looks like a playground. Water that used to stagnate in trenches in some parts, thereby helping farmers, has dried up, exposing the hundreds of pipes that were being used to draw water.
For the last a few years, the backwater had become a new habitat for migratory birds flocking and nesting near the ponds. Now, even these ponds are drying up.
As the water level is dipping at a rapid pace, the dam now holds only around 12 tmcft of water.
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This is needed primarily to meet the drinking water needs of hundreds of villages and urban areas of Vijayapura and Bagalkot district.
According to officials of Krishna Bhagya Jal Nigam Limited, the reservoir reached the dead storage level in last week of March, while generally, such a condition is noticed in the second week of April.
Owing to the rising temperature that has already crossed 40 degrees Celsius, water is evaporating faster everyday, posing another threat. Meanwhile, Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil has decided to utilise the dead storage water for drinking purposes as the government has been left with no choice.