Heavy rains across the State for about 10 days have not only made all major projects, except Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar, become surplus both in the Godavari and Krishna Basins, but have also helped almost all medium irrigation projects and over 50% of minor irrigation tanks discharge surplus water.
According to Irrigation Department authorities, 18,490 minor irrigation tanks out of 34,618 tanks, as per information received till July 29, were discharging water from their surplus weirs/spillways and only 3,691 of them have received water up to 25% of their water holding capacity. There are a total of 43,837 minor irrigation tanks in the State.
Of the remaining tanks, about which information was received by the State authorities, 5,758 tanks have received inflows filling them from 75% to 100% of their capacity, 3,192 of them got water in the range of 50% to 75% of their capacity and another 3,487 tanks have been filled from 25% to 50% of their capacity.
As of July 30 (till 8.30 a.m.), the State has recorded an average of 58% excess rainfall above the normal. Against the normal average rainfall of 344 mm for from June 1 to July 30, the actual average rainfall recorded is 543 mm, according to the IMD statistics.
The higher intensity of rain was mostly in northern districts and the tank filling status till July 29 clearly indicates it. Till July 1, the average rainfall deficit was 52% and it was 26% till July 15. In the next two weeks, the rains wiped out the deficit and became 58% surplus.
“The fact that 2,393 out of 2,418 tanks, about which information has been received in the purview of Chief Engineer Warangal, 1,308 out of 1,359 under CE Jagitial, 1,755 out of 2,144 under the limits of CE Kothagudem, 931 out of 996 under CE Nizamabad, 1,028 out of 1,515 under CE Kamareddy, 1,553 out of 2,141 under CE Mulugu, 973 out of 1,149 under CE Mancherial, 995 out of 1,208 under CE Ramagundam and 1,830 out of 2,332 under CE Karimnagar becoming surplus, indicates where the rainfall intensity was,” a senior engineer in the State head office explained.
Similarly, only three out 1,738 tanks in the purview of CE Nagarkurnool, 89 out of 2,269 under CE Mahabubnagar, 18 out of 1,631 under CE Nalgonda and 45 out of 1,665 under CE Wanaparthy becoming surplus so far, indicates the occurrence of low rainfall in those areas.
