VIJAYAPURA: Incessant rain in the Western Ghats and the catchment areas of Krishna basin has resulted in an all-time record inflow and outflow--6.25 and 5.35 lakh cusecs respectively — to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Water Reservoir, popularly known as the Almatti Dam, on Saturday. As a result, three districts, Vijayapura, Yadgir and Raichur, have been put on highest alert, with more villages getting inundated.
The 6.25 and 5.35 lakh cusecs inflow and outflow, has broken the previous record of 4.5 lakh inflow and outflow, recorded in 2005. More than 50 villages have been completely flooded due to the consequent verflow of Krishna and Ghataprabha rivers.
The Krishna and Ghataprabha rivers confluence at Bagalkote before flowing to Almatti Dam. The inflow to dam is from the two major rivers of North Karnataka.
The Ghataprabha is overflowing as more than 1.5 lakh cusecs is being discharged from Hidkal Dam of Gokak.
According to the Almatti Dam officials, “The reservoir has never witnessed such a huge inflow and outflow since the dam was opened. The previous record was 4.5 lakh cusecs inflow and outflow respectively reported in 2005. After 14 years, the reservoir has received this amount of water for the first time. As inflow is increasing by the hour, the reservoir now has 88 tmcft against the maximum storage capacity of 123 tmcft.”
With the discharge of 5.35 lakh cusecs to Narayanpura reservoir at least eight villages of Muddibehal taluk are completely submerged. Meanwhile, the Narayanpura has also received record inflow and outflow on Saturday as the authorities discharged 6,17,500 cusec which has inflow of 6,20,000 cusecs.
The discharge of water from Narayanpura has flooded 16 more villages where the district administration of Yadgir has successfully rehabilitated all the villages without reporting any casualties. The Kudalasangama temple has also flooded.