Sagar poses threat to Vijayawada

Hyderabad/Vijayawada
Oct. 4: The flood situation at Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar continues to be grim with the water level at Srisailam still above the Full Reservoir Level (FRL). But the focus shifted to Prakasam barrage and adjoining Vijayawada where all the water will land up.

On Sunday night, the Nagarjunasagar dam received 11.72 lakh cusecs from Srisailam and released 10.60 lakh cusecs downstream to the Prakasam barrage. Monday will be a crucial day when the water released from Nagarjunasagar will reach Prakasam barrage. The century-old barrage will find it difficult to manage waters beyond 11 lakh cusecs.

The Vijayawada district administration has evacuated about 1.5 lakh people living in low-lying areas. More people were being persuaded to move out late into the night. Prakasam barrage received 7.73 lakh cusecs at 9 am on Sunday, 8.14 lakh cusecs by 1 pm and 8.55 lakh cusecs by 5 pm, according to the irrigation department.

Upstream of the Srisailam dam, the situation eased somewhat with water clearing from Kurnool town, Mantralayam. Residents returned to their sodden homes, dirtied beyond belief and silt-ridden.

The chief engineer of Srisailam project, Mr S. Bashir, said that till the dam reaches its full reservoir level of 885 ft, water will continue to be discharged into the Nagarjunasagar dam. “I hope we will be able to reduce the levels to FRL in another two days, assess the situation after taking into account the fresh inflows from the Karnataka reservoirs, and close the flood gates,” Mr Bashir said.

The Nagarjunasagar chief engineer, Mr M. Ramachandraiah, said the dam had a cushion of 10 tmc ft (1,12,000 cusecs) before it reaches full capacity of 425 tmc ft. “If we are going to get increased inflows (which is bound to happen due to the Srisailam releases) we may have to increase the outflows beyond 10.60 lakh cusecs, for which we will have to inform the government in advance and obtain permission,” he said.

The irrigation department discharged another 10.5 lakh cusecs of water from the Nagarjunasagar dam at 6.30 am on Sunday. The water is expected to reach the Prakasam barrage by midnight on Sunday or on Monday morning. There is danger of the waters inundating the upstream mandals of Kanchikacharla, Nandigama, Chandrlapadu, Ibrahimpatnam and Jaggaiapet and another 15 mandals downstream of the Prakasam barrage.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the floods rose to 38 on Sunday and about 4.77 lakh people were evacuated including 1.5 lakh in Krishna. The authorities heaved a sigh of relief the floodwater flow into the Bay of Bengal picked up on Sunday evening as the high tide effect gradually reduced. The government claimed that 8.68 lakh food packets and 9.45 lakh water sachets were distributed.

The authorities put the number of houses damaged at 60,883. As many as 1,143 swimmers were pressed into service and 370 boats deployed. A total of 16 helicopters were pressed into service.