As the wait continues for the monsoon, water levels in the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS), Kabini, Harangi and Hemavathi reservoirs have dropped by 10ft to 40 ft compared to last year. KRS had 72 feet of water on Saturday as against its capacity to hold 124.80 ft, when last year it had 96.3 ft of water the same day, says KRS executive engineer, Vijaykumar. While water was supplied from the reservoir to farmers for 20 days and held back for 10 since March, they are receiving no supply at all now. "We are, however, managing to provide water for drinking," says KRS superintending engineer, Shankaregowda.
The situation is not surprising as Mysore which is supposed to receive an average rainfall of 59mm in June, has hardly received 5mm so far, says a technical officer of the Organic Farming Technical Research Station (OFTRS) at Naganahalli. In Kabini the water level stood at 2253.93 ft on Saturday as against its capacity to hold 2284.00 ft. It had water upto 2269.09 ft the same day last year , says assistant executive engineer, Nagaraj.
"We were supposed to get 1000mm of rainfall and 2-3 TMC of water in the dam by now, but we have hardly received 200mm of rain so far," he notes. At Harangi reservoir the water level was 2802.30 ft on Saturday although it can hold upto 2859 ft. Last year on the same day, the water level was 2840.16 ft," recalls Harangi AEE, D. T. Palanethraiah. The story is much the same in Hemavathi reservoir which had water upto only 2869.18 ft on Saturday as against its capacity of 2922 feet. Last year it had water upto 2881ft the same day, say official sources.