In the first big step towards the linking of river Godavari with Krishna, officials of Andhra Pradesh Government on Saturday released the water of Godavari into the right bank canal of the under construction Polavaram project. Officials said that 150 cusecs of water was released from Tadipudi lift irrigation project canal at Guddigudem village of West Godavari district.
“This is merely a trial run,” said Executive Engineer of irrigation department Devprakash. “If need be we can increase the release of water to 450 cusecs,” he said.
Diversion of Godavari river waters to the water-starved parts of West Godavari district and to the Krishna Delta region was one of the main aims of the Polavaram project as every year more than 3000 tmc ft of Godavari is wasted into the Bay of Bengal.
The State Government had started work on Tadipudi scheme a month ago to make the diversion of water into Polavaram canal possible and now the water was released without any fanfare.
Officials assured the farmers of Tadipudi that the water will be released only after fulfilling their irrigation needs and they need not worry about the development. “This water will take 15 days to reach Prakasham Barrage near Vijayawada,” Devprakash said.
The development is of far reaching impact as Krishna delta region was facing a severe crisis due to the failure of Monsoon and lack of water in the river Krishna. Water level has touched an all time low in the Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects on Krishna river hitting the farming activities badly in the normally fertile delta. Officials hope that by diverting atleast a part of excess Godavari waters to the Krishna delta they can help the farmers.