3 lakh cusecs of Krishna floodwater likely to be discharged today
Vijayawada:As nearly three lakh cusecs of the Krishna river floodwater is likely to be discharged from Prakasam Barrage by Thursday, people living in low-lying areas along the river course have been put on a high alert. Swimming and fishing on boats in the river have been banned for safety purposes.
Water resources authorities said that, at 6pm, they were releasing 60,875 cusecs of water from Prakasam barrage by lifting 15 gates by two feet and 55 gates by one feet downstream of the river, while 16,725 cusecs of water is being released to two canals for cultivation of crops.
The barrage is having an inflow of 77,804 cusecs of water from upstream projects like Pulichintala, Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam.
With a huge inflow into upstream projects on Krishna river following heavy rainfall in their catchment areas, the water resources department has started releasing water to downstream projects. The upstream projects have been filled to the brim and this resulted in downstream projects getting a huge inflow. This forced the authorities to release such water into the sea and to divert some quantum of water to canals for raising crops.
Accordingly, the Srisailam dam has recorded a storage of 202.97 tmc-ft of water (94.05 per cent, against gross capacity at FRL of 215.81 tmc-ft with an outflow of 3.17 lakh cusecs of water.
Similarly, the Nagarjuna Sagar dam has recorded a current storage of 300.32 tmc-ft of water against a gross capacity at FRL of 312.05 tmc-ft with an outflow of 3.11 lakh cusecs. The Pulichinthala project recorded 41.59 tmc-ft of water (90.87 per cent) against gross capacity at FRL of 45.77 tmc-ft and an outflow of 3.01 lakh cusecs.
The Prakasam Barrage has received a water of 3 tmc-ft (97.72 per cent) against a gross capacity at FRL of 3.07 tmc-ft with an outflow of 87,441 cusecs of water downstream by 8pm.
Meanwhile, NTR district collector G Lakshmisha, aong with a team of officials from the water resources department, visited the Prakasam Barrage and took stock of the developments with regard to quantum of water to be discharged and the steps to be taken downstream from the barrage along the river course to ensure safety to the people.
He said that they had alerted the people living either side along the river course over the discharge of huge quantum of water in the days to come and also the people living in both upstream and downstream of barrage. “We have identified 43 low-ting areas in the city. The people may be shifted to rehabilitation centres based on need. We are also maintaining an alert along streams like Budameru, Pulivagu and Kothula Vagu.
The collector said a control room was functional at the collectorate with the number 9154970454, which would work round-the-clock. “We also kept ready the SDRF teams, which would be on alert in the next two days.”
