VIJAYAWADA: With massive inflows continuing to major reservoirs on River Krishna, the officials said that Prakasam Barrage, in the lower basin of the river, is likely to receive a massive nine lakh cusecs of flood by Friday night. According to the Central Water Commission (CWC), the flood is expected to remain steady as the projects in the upper catchment area of the river in the neighbouring States are likely to continue the discharge of flood water.
While the flood to Prakasam Barrage saw a dip in the morning, it steadily rose later in the day as Pulichintala Project discharged 8.5 lakh cusecs at 4 pm. The inflow to, and thereby the outflow from, Pulichintala project fell to 5.5 lakh to 5.96 lakh by 8 pm. However, Krishna District Collector A Md Imtiaz, who inspected flood-affected villages on Friday, said that the inflow to the barrage is expected to surge to 9 lakh cusecs by late night. At 8 pm, the barrage recorded an inflow of 7.28 lakh cusecs and an outflow of 7.24 lakh cusecs, with the second flood warning in place.
“As the inflow is likely to further rise, alert has been sounded in 18 mandals between Jaggaiahpet and Nagayalanka. For rehabilitation and relief measures in lanka (island) villages, three SDRF and NDRF teams have been stationed at Vijayawada, Nandigama and Thotlavalluru. We have also moved 2,300 people from flood-hit parts of Vijayawada to four relief camps and 20 from Chandarlapadu to the camps in Ibrahimpatnam,” he said.
For the record, if the inflows touch 9 lakh cusecs, it would be one of the highest ever inflows to the barrage. According to the irrigation department, the barrage discharged a maximum flood of 11.1 lakh cusecs at 11 pm, October 5, 2009, the highest ever since its construction, in the aftermath of Kurnool floods. The barrage has been designed to discharge a maximum flood of 11.9 lakh cusecs. The previous maximum flood discharge was 9.32 lakh cusecs in 1998. In August, 2019, the barrage received over 8 lakh cusecs.
The major reservoirs in the basin too received heavy inflows. At 6 pm, Srisailam recorded an inflow of 5.62 lakh cusecs and an outflow of 5.06 lakh cusecs. The officials lifted 10 crest gates up to 20 feet to regulate the flow and 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. Nagarjuna Sagar also recorded similar inflow and outflow and as of Friday morning it had 309.95 TMC of water at 589.3 feet as against its FRL capacity of 312.05 TMC at 590 feet.
According to the bulletin of the CWC, the flood is expected to remain steady as the projects in Krishna basin in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana are also receiving high inflows due to the rainfall in the river catchment area.
Meanwhile, Gotta Barrage across Vamsadhara river saw a fall in the inflow. At 6 pm, it recorded an inflow of 32,000 cusecs and an outflow of 33,000 cusecs. Similarly, the inflow to Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage, across Godavari river at Dowleswaram, remained steady at 2.78 lakh cusecs. The outflow was 2.75 lakh cusecs.
Advisory from dist collector
The residents of low-lying places along the river catchment area should vacate their houses and move to relief centres as the flood is likely to rise
Don’t cross rivulets, lakes and other water bodies as the river is in spate
Don’t venture into the water to swim
Don’t let cattle and other animals enter the water streams