A review of lift irrigation schemes across Krishna and NTR districts has found that the majority are in disrepair, leaving farmers across lakhs of acres without the water supply these projects were built to provide.
Of the 137 lift irrigation schemes assessed in the two districts, 92 were found to be damaged or non-functional, according to irrigation officials who carried out scheme-by-scheme inspections. The schemes, many of which draw water from the Krishna river and its canal network to supply fields that lie above the natural flow of water, have suffered from ageing pump motors, damaged pipelines, and silted-up intake points.
Officials estimate that roughly Rs 61 crore is required to bring the damaged schemes back into working condition. The breakdown includes replacement of burnt-out and outdated motors, repair of delivery pipelines that have corroded or cracked over years of use, and desilting of channels that feed water into the lift systems.
Farmers in several mandals served by the affected schemes say they have had to rely on diesel pump sets or borewells at much higher cost during the current cropping season, cutting into already thin margins. Some have left fields fallow rather than absorb the additional expense.
Irrigation officials said proposals for phased repairs have been forwarded to the state government, with priority expected to go to schemes serving the largest commanded areas. No firm timeline for the release of repair funds has been announced yet.
The lift irrigation network in the two districts was originally built to extend water access to elevated farmland that canal gravity flow cannot reach, making the schemes critical for paddy and other water-intensive crops grown in the region during both cropping seasons.
