VIJAYAWADA: All major and minor irrigation projects in Andhra Pradesh are brimming with water after having received heavy inflows from upper catchment regions. Projects in the Krishna and Godavari regions are releasing surplus water into the sea.
As against the total water storage capacity in the State (major, minor and other reservoirs) of 982.35 TMC, as on date, 868.61 TMC is available. As much as 91.43 per cent of the major reservoirs’ capacity has been filled. They can store 865.64 TMC, and currently hold 791.16 TMC. At the same time last year, these reservoirs held 755 TMC of water.
Medium reservoirs too have seen a significant increase in their storage this year. While the gross capacity of Andhra Pradesh’s medium reservoirs is 115.09 TMC, they held 47 TMC last year (on October 20), and now hold 77.13 TMC.
This year, the amount of surplus water let into the sea is much more than in the last year. From Prakasam Barrage, in the lower Krishna basin, over 1,060 TMC was released into the sea between June 1 and October 20.
This is the highest discharge since 2004. About 94 TMC has been utilised from the barrage so far, compared to 179.91 TMC in the entire previous water year.
Similarly, about 3,300 TMC of Godavari water has flown into the sea from Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage in Dowleswaram in the last 3-and-a-half months.
Between June 1, 2019 and May 31, 2020, 3,797.4 TMC was discharged into the sea from the barrage.
The utilisation since June this year stood at 98.6 TMC, compared to 254 TMC in the previous water year.
Gotta Barrage, on Vamsadhara, has let 65 TMC of surplus water into the sea this season. Last water year, it let 134 TMC into the sea. About 17 TMC has been used since June. Between June 1, 2019 and May 31, 2020, the utilisation was 24.5 TMC. Meanwhile, flood to Prakasam Barrage has remained steady with over 5.3 lakh cusecs continuing to reach on Tuesday.
While the trend of inflows to other major reservoirs in Krishna basin such as Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar is falling, the central water commission (CWC) said that the flood will continue to the projects in ‘varying degree’ due to rainfall in view of formation of a low pressure in the Bay of Bengal. At 8 pm, Prakasam Barrage, in lower Krishna basin, recorded an inflow of 5.34 lakh cusecs and was discharging a surplus of 5.32 lakh cusecs after diverting about 2,000 cusecs via delta canals.
The first flood warning still continues to be in place. It will be withdrawn when the outflow from the barrage falls below 3.96 lakh cusecs. Pulichintala Project, at 7 pm, was discharging about 3.11 lakh cusecs while its inflow has fallen to 2.68 lakh cusecs. Though the inflow to Srisailam reservoir has fallen to 3.79 lakh cusecs, at 6 pm, from over 5 lakhs on Monday, the officials expect the flood to continue as the projects in the upper catchment areas of the river in neighbouring states are receiving continuous inflows.
The reservoir has 213.35 TMC of water at 884.61 feet as against its full reservoir level (FRL) capacity of 215.81 TMC at 885 feet. Sunkesula Barrage recorded an inflow and an outflow of 15,900 cusecs. Nagarjuna Sagar, at 6 pm, was receiving an inflow of 3.01 lakh cusecs and was releasing most of it downstream. It has 309.95 TMC of storage at 589.3 feet as against its FRL capacity of 312.05 TMC at 590 feet.