The temple town, which is frequented by not less than 65,000 pilgrims a day, continues to reel under the influence of a prolonged dry spell despite the onset of the Northeast monsoon. Even though the town has experienced intermittent rain in the past couple of weeks, there has been no increase in water storage levels at the four major dams.
Water scarcity is not new to the town, which has three major reservoirs – Papavinasanam, Kumaradhara and Pasupudhara projects — besides the Akasa Ganga dam on the upper reaches of the PPV dam. The overall holding capacity of the dams is around 5,025 MLD, which is sufficient to meet the requirements of the hill town for a year. Despite the presence of multiple reservoirs, which are all rain-fed, the town has a history of reeling under severe drought on several occasions. In the late Nineties, the government had to lay a pipeline along the rocky terrain from the Kalyani dam at Chandragiri in a record span of just 77 days to tide over a crisis.
While water storage has hit rock-bottom at the Gogarbham, Kumaradhara and Pasupudhara projects, PPV is left with partial reserves. The alarming fact is that if water available in the PPV dam is drawn at the current rate of 4 MLD a day, it can meet the requirements of the town for another 36 days.
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Even though the town has already received around 500 mm rainfall, of the total average of 1,364 mm every year, there has been no significant rise in the storage levels of dams, leave alone last week’s downpour that registered over 80 mm. And, officials say scattered rainfall stands in the way of the formation of intense supply streams that are crucial for rise in storage levels.
With the failure of the Southwest monsoon, the TTD now pins its hopes on the Northeast monsoon. Meanwhile, a recent GO that allows the TTD to draw waters from the dead storage level of the Kandaleru reservoir has nevertheless brought the much-needed respite to the water-starved town.