Hirakud reservoir: water scarcity poised a threat

As the water level of the Hirakud dam reservoir has gone further down because of the dry weather it puts a direct effect on the power generation and irrigation. The dam officials apprehend a total grind halt incase the situation persists for few more days. One can imagine the condition of the country’s biggest reservoir has only 5 feet of water with a generation of 17 MW of electricity in place of total 307 MW. When the dam officials blame the dry weather as the cause of the condition, activists claim it as an outcome of the of the government water sharing policy with the industrial houses. Sources said, the Hirakud dam has a capacity of 40 feet water with in an area 743 sq. km with having power generation capacity of 307. MW. But presently the situation has been alarming as the dam has only 5 feet of water forcing the authority to cut down power generation. The control room sources revealed that only 17.958 MW has been generated in Burla power house over the past one week as there is severe scarcity of water in the dam reservoir.
“Since our priority job is to supply water for the irrigation we have cut down the power generation looking to the scarcity of water. We successfully managed every thing with the existing water till date. But if the situation remains unchanged for few days more it would be difficult for us run the water management smoothly”, the superintending engineer of Hirakud Dam Project JB Moahapatra told.
Sources said, about 7496 cusec of water is being discharged from the reservoir to maintain the irrigation and power generation against the inflow of 671 cusec. So there is a deficit of water every moment. At present the water level of the reservoir is slight high to 595 feet, just 5 feet away from the dead-level.. Dam authority supply 3000 cusec of water to Bargarh Canal, 630 cusec to through Sasan canal for irrigation and 102 cuses to Sambalpur and 7 cusec to Hirakud. But nothing will be possible for the dam authority in case the water level touches the dead level of 590.
However the dam experts and social activists believe that sharing dam water to the industrial houses is the outcome of such a situation. “Such a situation was never occurred in the past. You can not always depend on the rain in the catchments area in the non-monsoon period. Some time it happens. But such a situation will always arise till industries are allowed to take water directly from the reservoir”, the former chief engineer Karunakar Supakar told.

“The main purpose behind the construction of the dam was flood control, irrigation and power generation. Water to industries was never a purpose. So if government feels the necessity of sharing water to the industries than government should give direction to the industrial houses to take water during rainy seasons and preserve it in there respective places. They should have there own reservoir to store water”, Mr. Supakar told.

On the other hand Dam official does not see any threat with the sharing of water with the industrial houses. “See industrial houses are presently taking 80 to 90 cusec water in place of 486 cusec as decided by the government. The major set back was occurred this year that we did not get a single drop of water since 17^th September 2008 to till date as there is no rain in the catchments area of the reservoir.”, Superintending Engineer Hirakud dam, Mr. Mohapatra told.Meanwhile the scarcity of water in reservoir has become a treat on the flora and fauna that was depending in the reservoir water.

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