VIJAYAWADA: With over 4.2 lakh cusecs of flood water being discharged from Prakasam Barrage, the officials sounded an alert in the low-lying areas as the outflow is likely to continue for a day or two, as per the Central Water Commission’s flood advisory, causing submergence. The inflows to the barrage touched almost 4.5 lakh cusecs at 1 pm, Sunday, prompting the officials to release a surplus of almost 4.2 lakh cusecs. While the inflow has marginally come down by evening, heavy inflow from upper catchment areas is likely to continue to lower Krishna basin as rainfall is expected to be steady.
In the morning, as the water level began to rise, the water resources officials issued the first flood morning at 8.45 am and directed that extra watchers and flood duty officers be arranged. However, the warning was withdrawn at 8.45 pm as the inflows reduced to 3.95 lakh cusecs. While 4,300 cusecs was utilised via canals, the rest was released downstream as surplus.
Further due to continuing rainfall in North interior Karnataka, Telangana and Rayalaseema, River Bhima is rising in Kalaburagi district of Karnataka and is flowing in Above Normal Flood situation. This will provide additional inflows to PD Jurala project in Telangana. Since Jurala project is nearly full, the releases from Jurala to Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala dams are likely for another two to three days. Further, River Tungabhadra is likely to rise in middle and Lower Tungabhadra sub-basins...which is likely to give additional inflows into Srisailam dam, the advisory stated.
At 6 pm, Srisailam recorded an inflow of 3.13 lakh cusecs, while the outflow stood at 3.09 lakh cusecs. About 212.19 TMC of water was available in the water at 884.42 feet as against the FRL storage capacity of 215.81 TMC at 885 feet. Nagarjuna Sagar, which has 309.36 TMC of water at 589.1 feet as against its FRL capacity of 312.05 TMC at 590 feet, was getting 2.5 lakh cusecs at 3 pm and was discharging it entirely to Pulichintala. Pulichintala recorded an inflow of 2.56 lakh cusecs at 7 pm and was releasing all of it to Prakasam Barrage.
Meanwhile, the levels in Godavari are also expected to surge, according to CWC, as excess flood will continue to reach Laxmi Barrage in Telangana, from which it would be released to lower Godavari basin in Bhadradri district, and later likely in Dowleswaram. At 1 pm, Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage in Dowleswaram recorded an inflow and an outflow of 2.88 lakh cusecs.