Full canals wash farmers’ irrigation worries away

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 7

The erratic onset of monsoon in the north-west region of the country notwithstanding, the reservoirs of all three major dams — Bhakra, Pong and Ranjit Sagar—are witnessing increased water inflow due to heavy rain in their catchment areas.

Farmers in most of the river-fed areas of the Malwa region — except for the ground-water dependent districts of Sangrur, Ropar, Fatehgarh Sahib — are expected to have no irrigation problems this monsoon.

The state irrigation department is operating all Punjab canals to their brim due to the increased inflow in the three reservoirs.

It is for the first time that the tail ends of all state canals are operational as these have sufficient water for irrigation.

The state’s 30 per cent cultivable land is river-fed while the rest is largely dependent on tubewells or ground water.

Since the department is releasing river water in these canals liberally, the authorities have directed officials to keep a round-the-clock vigil to detect breaches and to check pilferage of water from these canals.

“We are running all state canals to their maximum capacity,” Kahan Singh Pannu, Principal Secretary, Irrigation, told The Tribune.

The water level in the Bhakra dam reservoir is 1,607.42 ft against its maximum level of 1,680 ft. The reservoir is getting 49,186 cusecs this year in comparison to 41,665 cusecs last year.

The water level of Pong dam, having a maximum reservoir level of 1,390 ft, rose from 1,314.75 ft in 2014 to 1331.94 feet this year—a clear gain of 17.19 feet. The daily inflow of water into the reservoir increased from 13,839 cusecs in 2014 to 31,003 cusecs this year.

Ranjit Sagar dam, which has the maximum reservoir level of 527.91m, is at 522.85m this year in comparison to 520.40m recorded in 2014.

The dam reservoir has registered a quantum jump with respect to water inflow which has increased from 11,451 cusecs to 21,797 cusecs this year.

The average water inflow at Madhopur headworks registered a minor decrease from 14,868 cusecs to 14,662 cusecs whereas the supply in the Sirhind canal went down from 12,450 cusecs to 9,900 cusecs.