Irrigation supply from Ukai and Kadana dams stopped

Ahmedabad, 7 July, 2014

Irrigation water supply from Ukai and Kadana dam has been stopped due to delayed rain.

Ideally entire Gujarat should be covered under south-west monsoon by 15 June, but only southern Gujarat upto Surat and parts of southern Saurashtra are officially covered by monsoon so far.

There has been no fresh income of water in major dams like Narmada, Ukai, Kadana due to poor rain so far in neighboring states.

In South Gujarat, irrigation water supply from Ukai dam is going to be stopped today ( 7 July 2014 ) for 15 days for now. The decision on when to resume irrigation water supply will be taken after further review.

Ukai dam’s rule level is 317.85 ft against which the present level is 303.27 ft.

The state government is obviously giving priority to drinking water supply.

In Rajkot, the district collector has already issued a notification declaring water in all dams in district reserved for only drinking water supply purpose.

Irrigation water supply from Kadana dam has also been stopped. Around 3,000 ha land has therefore lost irrigation cover. Kadana dam is 77% full, and its present level is 124.74 meter. However in view of delayed monsoon, irrigation water supply has been stoped after two rounds of irrigation water supply to farms.

Delayed rain and no income of fresh water has adversly affected power generation worth crores of Rs daily at hydro power stations at Kadana dam and Narmada dam.

Author’s note:

The month of June has been total failure in terms of rainfall in Gujarat this monsoon. July’s first week is over and there has been no significant gain in terms of fresh addition of rain water to reservoirs. Even if there’s rain in next phase of monsoon, it is unlikely that it could prove normal monsoon. Private weather agency Skymet has in its recent updated announcement predicted 80% chance of drought in Gujarat.

Though Narmada, Kadana and Ukai are capable to supply drinking water to Gujarat for next few months, what if two subsequent monsoons are poor? While enough water is available as of now for drinking purpose,the real problem will surface in summer 2015 if monsoon 2014 actually fails.

Three weeks of July, entire month of August and the month of September altogether may bring good rain, but while hoping for the best, preparedness for the worst is must, and in that direction the decision to stop irrigation supply is good.