Adilabad to harvest water running off hill streams

State government sanctioned 84 check dams across 18 mandals in district

The Wankidi stream in full flow in monsoon, will soon have a check dam across it in Neredigonda mandal of Adilabad district.

As the backward Adilabad district has rarely seen development which has been planned to match its requirements and without causing damage to environment, the sanction of new check dams on hill streams across its 18 mandals will only come as a welcome feature.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, who holds the Irrigation portfolio as well, has sanctioned 600 check dams across the State in Phase I of the irrigation development of which 84 will be constructed in this district at a cost of about ₹ 200 crore to supply water to crops in nearly 11,000 acres.

The hilly Adilabad district boasts of umpteen number of hills streams which yield enormous quantities of water that actually go wasted as there are no ‘local’ water harvesting structures. The irrigation potential, or that which is of no use in the district, can be gauged from the fact that the Kadem dam in Nirmal district, which has almost all of its catchment area of 2,590 sq km in Adilabad district has received nearly 30 tmcft of water this monsoon but not even a litre of it was used to irrigate lands in Adilabad.

Improve water table

The check dams will not only retain some quantum of the excess water discharged from concerned streams during monsoon but will improve the ground water level for a longer time in the given area. This will take care of the drinking water needs of the local population.

“These works will be taken up on 4th order and above streams sooner than later so as to benefit farmers in the next season,” hoped Adilabad Irrigation Executive Engineer Sushil Deshpande as his department launched the task of screening the works for early start and issuing tender notification. “More will be taken up in the second phase works later when the government will sanction the remaining 600 check dams across the State,” he added.

Largest structure

The largest of the local water harvesting structures will come up across the Toyaguda stream near Toyaguda in remote Gadiguda mandal. It will irrigate 340 acres of lands in the tribal belt and is estimated to cost ₹ 2.28 crore.

Neredigonda and Boath mandals have been allocated 8 check dams each followed by Gudihatnoor and Narnoor getting 7 each. Farmers in these hilly mandals will be ecstatic on learning of this two-day-old development as they have waited for it for long.