Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has asked the Irrigation Department officials to make arrangements to divert water from Godavari river to projects based on Krishna in the erstwhile Mahabubnagar and Khammam districts, whenever the availability of water to such projects is strained due to poor flows in their original sources.
Asking them to complete the construction of ongoing projects in the two districts as early as possible, he also wanted the officials to prepare operation manuals for proper management of every project. At a review meeting held here on Tuesday, he said: “River Godavari flows through several areas of the Khammam and availability of water is high at Dummugudem since rainfall in the district is high. Entire district can be given water by lifting it for 195 meters.”
Available water
In spite of having such dependable water resource, the district was left drought-prone due to non-utilisation of available water, the Chief Minister said adding that projects had to be constructed in such a way that the entire district was provided irrigation facility. Water lifted at Dummugudem had to be dropped in Bayyaram tank to provide irrigation facility to the entire district, he suggested.
The meeting was attended by ministers S. Niranjan Reddy, V. Srinivas Goud, former minister C. Laxma Reddy and legislators Marri Janardhan Reddy, Guvvala Balaraju, Ale Venkateshwar Reddy, Y. Anjaiah Yadav, G. Jaipal Yadav, S. Rajender Reddy, V. Abraham, C. Rammohan Reddy, B. Krishna Mohan Reddy, Patnam Narender Reddy, Puvvada Ajay Kumar, B. Haripriya Nayak, Ramulu Nayak, Rega Kantha Rao, Athram Sakku and others.
Reservoirs had to be constructed wherever required so that water could also be given to forest (RoFR) and assigned lands. “Mahabubnagar district was made to suffer badly in combined Andhra Pradesh. There is shortage of water to many projects as most of them were designed with Jurala as source. Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation scheme has been designed to overcome such shortage as it will draw water from Srisailam reservoir,” he explained.