The left canal of the Kondapochamma Sagar project breached on Tuesday morning flooding several houses in Sivaruvenkatapur village and destroying around 25 acres of farmland in Siddipet district of Telangana. The canal carries Godavari river water to several reservoirs. The project was inaugurated by the state's Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on May 29.
The 5 feet breach took place in the Jagadevpur canal originating from the Kondapochamma project. The incident took place at around 6 am, and the villagers were taken by surprise and were forced to flee with whatever little they could salvage from their homes. Several households in low lying areas sustained property damage. Many standing crops such as cotton, sweet corn, chilly and tomato spread across 25 acres of farmland were also destroyed in the flooding.
The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KILS) officials with the Irrigation Department stopped the flow by shutting the reservoir gates at around 8 am. The officials brought in earthmovers in an attempt to plug the breach. The New Indian Express reported that the officials have promised local residents affected by the flooding, 100% compensation for the losses suffered to both their homes and crops.
#Kondapochamma Canal Breaches and a Village in Markook Mandal of Siddipet Flooded with Water...#BangaruTelangana in Making... #Telangana pic.twitter.com/6gP3utK4bc
— తెలంగాణవాసి (@JSPChandan) June 30, 2020
The Engineer in Chief for KLIS, B Hariram Nayak told TelanganaToday that water was being released into the canal on a trial run and breaches during such trial runs were common. Water was first released into the canal on June 24.
The Kondapochamma Sagar is the last reservoir to finish work under the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme. The reservoir has a 15 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) capacity and is filled by the Godavari river with water after the water travels a distance of 274 km. The canal that breached on Tuesday can carry 11,500 cusecs of water and fills the tanks at Markuk and Jagadevpur mandals of Gajwel assembly constituency represented by the Chief Minister. The water from the canal also fills up tanks at Aleru assembly constituency of Yadadri district.