The Navale Balancing Reservoir, a new dam proposed to be built across River Tungabhadra near Navale village in Koppal taluk, is a permanent announcement in most Budgets presented in the last few years. However, no Budget has made any specific allocations for implementing the project.
The purpose of building the new reservoir was necessitated by the huge amount of silt accumulated on the bed of Tungabhadra reservoir near Hosapet in Vijayanagar district. As per estimate, over 32 tmcft of silt is accumulated on the reservoir bed, at the rate of around half a tmcft per year in the last 70 years, diminishing the water storage capacity of the dam.
Farmers in Koppal, Raichur, and Ballari, which are dependent on Tungabhadra waters for irrigation, have been demanding addressal of the issue either by dredging the reservoir or building another reservoir to compensate for the loss of storage. Since the dredging of a reservoir as huge as Tungabhadra is almost out of the question because of technical complexities, the government had decided to build a balancing reservoir at Navale in Koppal district.
