Hyderabad, July 30: As if the delay in monsoons was not enough, the irrigation department has decided to postpone release of water from Nagarjunasagar reservoir to crops in about 22 lakh acres in five districts Earlier, the state government had announced that water would be released for Nagarjunasagar left and right canal areas from August 1.

Wapda has stopped further filling of Tarbela and Mangala dams and is discharging 0.271 million cusecs water from various rim stations to meet water demands of the provinces for Kharif crops. Wapda sources told Business Recorder here on Monday that water inflows in rivers Indus, Kabul, Jhelum and Chanab have decreased during the last week of July.

Under supervision of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa), Wapda stored 8.2 million acre feet of water in its three main reservoirs Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma for sowing of Rabi crops especially the wheat crop in coming months of October/November.

Wapda sources told Business Recorder that with the current inflows in Indus, Kabul and Jhelum rivers, Tarbela and Mangla dams are likely to be filled by middle of next month.

GANDHINAGAR: Four years after it was launched, the state government has got a "post-feasibility study" of the controversial Sujalam Sufalam project prepared to silence its critics. Prepared jointly by the Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore and Water Resources Engineering and Management Institute (WREMI), Vadodara, it comes even as a Planning Commission document on the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12) refuses to include it in the list of projects it has approved.

The Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) will invite tenders in a few months for setting up of a 1450 MW capacity Pumped Storage power generating units across Sharavathi and Kali rivers.

The project, which involves pumping back of water used for generating power into reservoirs, aims at setting up a 800 MW unit at Varahi and 650 MW unit at Sharavathi hydro-stations. The technology will be obtained from Japan the total project cost is estimated to be around Rs 4500 crores.

Bangalore: A drastic fall in the water level of Kabini reservoir has forced the government to request far-mers in achkat area to sow ragi and maize instead of water intensive crops like paddy... Speaking to reporters on Wednesday after a meeting with Cauvery Neeravari Nigam officials, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Shobha Karan-dlaje said the current water storage in the Kabini stood at 3.5 tmc ft this year as against 65.83 tmc ft last year.

Bringing cheer to the farmers in the district, the Devadula lift irrigation project authorities on Sunday succeeded in releasing the water into the Dharmasagar reservoir near here. The release of water into the Dharmasagar this time is really a big success for the authorities as there were no hiccups in the entire stretch of pipeline from the main intake well at Gangaram to the Dharmasagar reservoir, which is 132 kilometres away.

The government has raised the compensatory amount from Rs18 billion to Rs54 billion for disbursement among the people affected by the raising of the country's second biggest reservoir, Mangla Dam. This was disclosed by Commissioner Mangla Dam Affairs Engineer Chaudhry Ameer Afzal while talking to a delegation of Britain-based affected persons, who called on him in his office here on Friday. Mr Afzal said construction work on raising of Mangla Dam would be completed by the end of next year.

Water level in Tarbela reservoir has increased by about 45 feet during the last six days augmenting the power generation capacity of country's biggest hydel power generation unit. On Tuesday evening the inflow crossed the mark of 300,000 cusecs, raising the expectations of early filling of reservoir during this season, official sources told Dawn here on Tuesday evening. Sources attributed the surging inflow of water in the dam to ever-shooting temperature that caused snow melting in the catchment areas of Indus River.

As the death toll from China's deadliest earthquake in decades climbed to over 32,000, on May 15, officials warned of a continuing threat downstream from broken river embankments and dams strained to