No problem for drinking water yet

Water level for the past six years on this date June 12

• 2015 76.67 ft.
• 2016 76.56 ft. 
• 2017 67.73 ft. 
• 2018 77.25 ft. 
• 2019 80.62 ft. 
• 2020 92.30 ft. 
• 2021 82.54 ft. 

Srirangapatna: Water level at the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) Dam in Mandya has plummeted to 82.54 ft. this morning.

The usable or potable water level is just 10 ft. now and unless rainwater starts flowing from the catchment areas of Kodagu, water cannot be released from the Dam at present for irrigation activities. 

The existing 10 ft. water will be used only for drinking water purposes to fulfil the needs of Mysuru and Bengaluru. 

The maximum water level at KRS is 124.8 feet and the dead storage level is 74.76 feet. Water is unfit for drinking purposes once the level reaches the dead storage. Apart from people of Mysuru and Bengaluru, 47 towns and 625 villages depend on Cauvery water from KRS for their daily needs. 

While the monsoon has entered the Kerala coast, it is expected to enter Kodagu only in the next 10 to 15 days and the monsoon will pick up pace in Kodagu only after June 27. 

The water that is presently stored in the KRS Dam is that of last year when it rained in Kodagu during August-September last year. 

Today’s inflow to the Dam is just 759 cusecs and once the monsoon picks up in the catchment areas, the inflow crosses over one lakh cusecs, dramatically pushing up the water level in the Dam and also increases the outflow to the river downstream and also canals.

The reasons attributed to the water level reaching 82.54 ft. include searing summer heat in the Mysuru-Mandya-Chamarajanagar belt where the maximum temperature hovered beyond 35 degrees Celsius and also water that was released to Tamil Nadu from time to time. The reservoir reported full capacity in December last year and in January 2021, the level was recorded at 118 ft. From then, the levels gradually declined and now stand at 82.54 ft. 

However, the officials from the Dam allay the fears of water shortage. “As per the forecast, there will be a good monsoon this year. As of now we cannot release water from the Dam for agricultural purposes and we have decided to wait till the monsoon picks up. If it starts raining heavily and there is a remarkable increase in inflow, we will stop the on-going works where the crest gates of the Dam are being replaced,” Vijay Kumar, Superintending Engineer of KRS Dam told Star of Mysore. 

General Secretary of District Raitha Sangha Manjesh Gowda said that most of the farmers in Mandya are in the midst of harvest season now and water will be required at the fields only after the end of June and first week of July. “If monsoon arrives on time and if water is released to canals, farmers can take up sowing activity and later paddy transplant. Officers must release water after transplanting as this is a critical time,” he added.