Vijayapura: Water levels in the Alamatti and Narayanpura reservoirs, which are the main sources of drinking water and irrigation in five districts of North Karnataka, have fallen sharply and there is a threat of a major drinking water problem by the end of July.
Due to decreased rainfall in the Krishna river basin, reservoirs supplying water to Vijayapura, Bagalkote, Yadgiri, Kalaburagi and Raichur districts have seen their water storage levels drop.
During the same period last year, both reservoirs were more than half full and authorities released thousands of chunks of water as a precaution. This year, reservoirs have reached dead levels with no inflow, raising concerns among officials and residents.
Alamatti Reservoir, with a total capacity of 123.081 trillion cubic feet, currently holds only 20.902 trillion cubic feet of water, of which only 3.282 trillion cubic feet is usable. The rest is considered dead storage.