Early Monsoon Flows Boost Srisailam Dam Storage

Hyderabad:Steady inflows at the Srisailam dam on River Krishna over the past 10 days have seen the doubling of the water storage, which on Monday stood at 152.49 tmc ft of water. This is four times the storage on June 30 last year.

The dam can hold 215.81 tmc ft of water and officials expected the storage to rise in the coming days. With the monsoon slowly taking hold in the Krishna river basin, inflows at Srisailam touched 46,141 cusecs (cubic feet of water per second) on June 20 and rose to 1,44,806 cusecs on June 30.

The inflows may have peaked on Monday with the amount of incoming water expected to be reduced over the next six days. If the predicted rate of inflows – averaging around 85,000 cusecs a day over the next six days holds - then the storage at the Srisailam dam is expected to reach around at least 198 tmc ft by July 6.

Meanwhile, officials said they were awaiting a report on the study of the plunge pool next to the dam by a team of diving specialists from Visakhapatnam who surveyed the deep hole using underwater camera equipment to determine the extent of the cavity and the damages caused to the steel protection cylinders erected in the past to protect the dam from erosion from the plunge pool extending towards the dam’s spillway.

Further steps to be taken to protect the dam, which the NDSA had said earlier was facing significant threats from the plunge pool and erosion, would be finalized once the report is received, officials said.