North Andhra reservoirs lose 1 tmcf annually via evaporation, seepage

Some big water storage places called reservoirs, in a part of India called north Andhra, are losing a lot of water every year.

Water is lost in two ways: evaporation, when the sun turns water into vapour, and seepage, when water slowly leaks into the ground.

Three reservoirs — Raiwada, Tatapudi and Meghadrigedda — together lose more than 1 tmc ft of water each year.

That is a very large amount of water that could otherwise have been stored for people to use.

Raiwada loses the most water, followed by Tatapudi and then Meghadrigedda.

Meghadrigedda reservoir is especially important because it provides drinking water to the city of Visakhapatnam.

The central government told Parliament about these losses and said no repair or safety upgrade work has been done on the three reservoirs.

The government has been checking the safety of dams across the country and has completed evaluations for many of them.

All dams that are checked need to be fully evaluated by December 2026.

Keeping water safe and stopping losses helps cities have enough water to live and grow.