Till two months ago, the huge tank located in Siddapur village of Jamkhandi taluk had only a little water, that, too, it was the result of rain.
Built by the Patwardhan dynasty in Jamkhandi during the British regime, the tank, which is spread over 190 acres, had almost gone dry for the last many years.
But one man decided to bring this tank to life with his own money as the government was not coming forward to do the job which was being demanded by the people here for long.
Industrialist Jagdish Gudagunti of Jamkhandi spent around ₹ 56 lakh from his own pocket to get the tank filled with the Krishna waters.
Owner of a sugar factory, Mr. Gudagunti had already had spent around ₹ 28 crore in the past to get a 22-km-long pipeline laid to bring water to his factory.
He had already paid money to the government for drawing water by setting up a jackwell at Galgali village in Bilagi taluk.
Though he was getting adequate quantum of water for his factory, Mr. Gudagunti thought of filling up the tank with the excess water as the tank is located close to the factory itself.
“Since the farmers were demanding the government to get the tank filled, I thought I could do that job with the available resources. I consulted experts and got the estimate prepared for the project,” he said.
Mr. Gudagunti said that after the initial preparation and taking the required permission, he got on to work by laying a pipeline from the existing line till the tank.
“It took around two months to fill up the tank with Krishna waters which was overflowing because of heavy rain,” he said.
The tank filled with water is now expected to help people in at least eight villages surrounding the tank as the underground water is increasing owing to continuous percolation.
The villages have been facing water problem after the groundwater level depleted and the borewells having either gone dry or failing to yield only little water which is inadequate for farming.
“With the tank getting filled, we are hoping that the water table increases in the surrounding villages which will help farmers. The people here are grateful to Mr. Gudagunti for his philanthropic act,” said Dundappa Jirgal, a farmer and functionary of the Raita Sangha.
