Amaravati: With rain lashing the South Indian States continuously for the past few days, all major reservoirs in Andhra Pradesh are full, said a media report.
After being dry for several months, Krishna Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar river reservoirs areĀ almost full. Also water is getting discharged into Krishna fromĀ Tungabhadra and Bhima rivers.
Following this, the floodwater is being discharged from both the reservoirsĀ to irrigation and drinking water systems benefiting farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
As of 1 June this year, the water level at Srisailam was only 807 feet against the Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of 885 feet with just 32.60 tmc ft of water that was way below the dead storage. But on Sunday, the water level touched 881 feet with a storage of 193.41 tmc ft, against the FRL of 215.81 tmc ft.
The authorities reduced the water storage from 202 tmc ft yesterday as more flood from Tungabhadra and Bhima, apart from its own inflows from Maharashtra and Karnataka, were expected to keep the flow steady in Krishna.
As much as 7,78,848 cusecs is being discharged from Srisailam to different irrigation channels and downstream Nagarjuna Sagar.
“Inflows into Srisailam are predicted to continue for the next week to ten days as the flood situation in Maharashtra and Karnataka is still continuing. Besides, 2.20 lakh cusecs is being discharged from Tungabhadra that will reach Srisailam in the next couple of days,” said a PTI report quoting C Narayana Reddy, Chief Engineer (Projects) of the Water Resources Department.
The Water Resources Department initiated action to consume about one lakh cusecs through different systems for the needs of four Rayalaseema districts and SPS Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh and Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda in neighbouring Telangana.
Surplus water is being released into Nagarjuna Sagar after power generation in the right and left bank generating stations. The Nagarjuna Sagar Project Chief Engineer Narasimha pointed out that last year the flood was just about two lakh cusecs, while it touched over seven lakh cusecs this year.
“We are hence releasing water from the right and left canals of Nagarjuna Sagar for the Kharif 2019 ayacut in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,” he said.
NSP currently holds 198 tmc ft of water as against its FRL of 312 tmc ft, with an inflow of 7.47 lakh cusecs. The NSP is expected to get filled up to capacity by Tuesday, given the current inflow.
Meanwhile, the flood fury in river Godavari has abated with the inflow at Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowaleswaram falling to 8,95,969 cusecs at 7 PM on Sunday. All warning signals here have been taken off as the flood discharge started receding.