VIJAYAWADA: With recent rains filling up to brim several major and medium reservoirs, mainly on Godavari, Krishna and Pennar rivers, water resource authorities are on high alert. They are keeping a close tab on breaches to any bunds and structures to avoid any untoward incident.
Following heavy floods, the ring bund of Pincha project has suffered damage, inundating crops in hundreds of acres. An earthen bund of Annamayya project also got washed away in Kadapa district. In view of these two incidents, authorities have stepped up vigil.
While the total capacity of all reservoirs is 982.35 tmcft, their storage as on Saturday is 847.28 tmcft (86.25 percent). Srisailam reservoir has current storage of 95.75 tmcft (44.37 percent) against gross capacity of 215.81 tmcft in Kurnool district. Nagarjunasagar has 307.28 tmcft of water (98.47 percent) against gross capacity of 312.05 tmcft in Krishna district. Pulichinthala has 36.78 tmcft of water (80.35 percent) against 45.77 tmcft in Guntur district.
Prakasam barrage has 3.07 tmcft of water (100 percent) in Krishna district. Sir Arthur Cotton barrage too has 2.93 tmcft of water (100 percent) in East Godavari district. Gandikota has 24.28 tmcft of water (90.43 percent) against gross capacity of 26.85 tmcft in Kadapa district. Velugodu balancing reservoir has 13.4 tmcft of water (79.06 percent) against gross capacity of 16.95 tmcft in Kurnool district.
Nagarjunasagar project deputy chief engineer M.R. Mohiddin said, “Following heavy rains in upstream Karnataka, we are getting massive inflows into downstream projects. Fortunately, as Srisailam project has a good storage space at present, we need not worry about huge inflow of water into Nagarjunasagar, though we are discharging over 5,000 sauces of water at present.”
As one of the crest gates at Pulichinthala project had got washed away earlier, authorities are keeping a close watch. The project is receiving nearly 3,500 cusecs of water from upstream.
Water resources engineer-in-chief C. Narayana Reddy said, “We are keeping close watch on all vulnerable projects to avoid any breaches to bunds and washing away of structures, so that loss of life and damage to property can be avoided.”
