Drill underground tunnel from Linganamakki Dam to Shivanasamudra to overcome water shortage in KRS

The storage capacity of Linganamakki Dam is 152 tmcft and it is filled and emptied many times over in a year. With just over one filling of this Dam, if it is supplied to Tamil Nadu instead of letting into the sea, Karnataka can keep all the water in the KRS Dam.

By V.R. Venugopal, BE (Civil)

Karnataka must release 177 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water to Tamil Nadu every year, as per the agreement between the two States at the time of building the KRS Dam. Whenever there is a shortage of rainfall and its flow into the River Cauvery, the KRS Dam gets empty quickly when the water is released to farmers in Tamil Nadu and the farmers in Karnataka start suffering and protesting.

While there is a regular shortage of water in the Cauvery River that flows to the east, there are many rivers flowing to the west in Karnataka whose water is simply let into the sea. One such River is the Sharavathi.

Shivamogga district in the Malnad region receives very heavy rainfall. This rainwater is stored in the Linganamakki Dam and most of it is released into the Sharavathi River after producing hydro-electric power.

This water in the Sharavathi River simply flows into the Arabian Sea.

The storage capacity of Linganamakki Dam is 152 tmcft and it is filled and emptied many times over in a year. With just over one filling of this Dam, if it is supplied to Tamil Nadu instead of letting into the sea, Karnataka can keep all the water in the KRS Dam.

Now the question will be “Why is this not being done?”

The problem is Linganamakki Dam is at an altitude of 570 metres above the sea level and in most parts of Karnataka the land is at altitudes above 800 metres.

The KRS Dam itself is at an altitude of 810 metres. The water from Linganamakki Dam will not flow to the KRS or Cauvery River by gravity.

Now here is a solution: The Cauvery water, after its release from KRS, flows to Shivanasamudra and drops down to a level of 430 metres from an altitude of 620 metres. By drilling an underground tunnel from Linganamakki to Shivanasamudra, which are separated by a distance of 300 kilometres, it is possible to feed by gravity the water from Linganamakki to the downstream of Cauvery, which is at 430 metres and on to Tamil Nadu.

This tunnel will be a mega project. It will need careful study and take considerable time, money and engineering excellence, but the result will solve the water problems of both the States.

The abundant water of Linganamakki Dam is mostly used for power generation. Now, there are many other ways of producing power and sending fresh water to the sea after just producing only power is not wise. In countries like Israel and Saudi Arabia, fresh water is being produced from sea water by using electric power. Here we are sending fresh water into the sea to produce the same electricity.

When Sir M. Visvesvaraya saw the Jog Falls, the sight of which people admire, he remarked “what a waste” and built the MG power plant (Mahatma Gandhi Hydro Electric project – MGHE).

Now the time has come to remember what Sir M. Visvesvaraya said that we were wasting the scarce fresh water by sending it to the sea after producing power, instead of using it for irrigating our fields also.