1 week Ago By S Guru Srikanth
VIJAYAWADA: Officials of the Water Resources Department are a worried lot as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast more rains for the State over the next few days. Under the influence of a low-pressure area being formed in the Bay of Bengal, which is likely to intensify into a cyclone, rainfall is likely in parts of the State. Officials are concerned as most of the reservoirs in the State are full with the recent rains resulting in heavy inflows.
Any more heavy inflows could be difficult to handle. Storage levels of reservoirs in the State currently stand at 843.77 TMC as against the gross level of 983.
49 TMC. This means that 85.79% of reservoirs in the State are full.
At 393.27 TMC, total storage levels stood at 39.99% during the same period last year.
According to real-time data from the Water Resources Department, as of Sunday (October 20), water level in the Srisailam project touched 884.8 feet as against the full reservoir level of 885 feet. Inflows stood at 2,22,641 cusecs, and outflows at 2,49,199 cusecs.
As much as 1,67,898 cusecs was released through the spillway. In the Nagarjuna Sagar Project, water levels stood at 589.8 feet as against FRL of 590.
55 feet. “Inflows were at 2,32,110 cusecs and outflows at 2,45,943 cusecs. The water level in the Pulichintala project, located downstream of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project, was 173.
53 feet as against FRL of 175 feet. Inflows stood at 2,39,417 cusecs and outflows at 2,38,720 cusecs. At Prakasam Barrage on Krishna River in Vijayawada, located downstream of the Pulichintala project, inflows and outflows stood at 1,62,689 cusecs.
Irrigation Department officials explained that the discharge into Tungabhadra River from TB dam was 19,248 cusecs, inflows into Tungabhadra River at Myaliganur was 56,504 cusecs with the inflows from Vedavathi and Vagus joining at the district border. In Mantralayam, the floodwater was discharged at the rate of 70,630 cusecs. With no heavy rains in the upper reaches, the trend is falling.
Speaking to TNIE, a senior engineer from the Water Resources Department explained that they will face a problem if there are inflows from upstream as well as catchment areas. He opined that at present there is no problem. Referring to the record inflows to Prakasam Barrage, he said, “What we saw in September this year was the rarest of the rare cases.
We had inflows from upstream as well as catchment areas. If the inflows from upstream had been even a little higher, we would have been in trouble. But, fortunately, that was not the case.
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