Officials released 2,000 cusecs of water from the Sriram Sagar Project (SRSP) into the Kakatiya main canal on Saturday morning, providing irrigation support to farmers while authorities warned that available water in the reservoir remains limited.
The discharge began at 9.45 am following instructions from higher authorities, according to officials quoted by Deccan Chronicle. The release will be increased gradually, although the report did not specify the revised discharge schedule or the areas expected to receive water first.
V Jagdish, Superintending Engineer of the Pochampad Irrigation Circle, advised farmers to use the released water properly and judiciously. Officials linked the caution to the impact of El Nino, saying that there was not enough water available in SRSP to support unrestricted use.
The release places the Kakatiya main canal within a wider water-management challenge at the project. According to officials, SRSP received total inflows of 42.618 TMC from June 1, 2026, while total outflows during the same period stood at 13.408 TMC. The figures indicate that authorities are tracking the balance between water entering the project and water being released for downstream use.
For farmers dependent on the canal, the immediate significance of the decision is the availability of irrigation water following the opening of the discharge. However, the advisory to use water judiciously means that access is being managed alongside concerns over the project’s remaining storage and future inflows. The report did not provide the current storage level, the canal command area affected by the release or the number of farmers expected to benefit.
The Kakatiya main canal is supplied from SRSP, making the project’s release decisions important to the operation of the irrigation network served by the canal. Increasing the discharge gradually will allow officials to manage the flow rather than release the full quantity at once, but the authority did not announce a final target discharge or an end date for the release.
Officials have asked farmers to use the water carefully as the discharge is increased. Further details on the release schedule, project storage and subsequent canal operations are expected from the irrigation authorities.
