Srisailam water level down as usage for power increases

VIJAYAWADA: Srisailam reservoir on Monday recorded a water level of 83.73 TMC, which is far less than the water level on a corresponding day last year.

On the same day last year, the reservoir had 154.18 TMC of water. Two factors are said to be the reason for the less storage this year, one being lesser inflows compared to last year and the second increased use for power production.

According to the daily statements showing the status of the canal, reservoir levels capacity inflow and outflows available with the water resources department, in December and for the past 17 days of January, both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana withdrew water at varying quantum for power generations in the right bank powerhouse and left bank powerhouse. 

In the past 17 days, compared to Telangana, Andhra Pradesh drew more water for power generation. The water released from the project for the purpose ends up in Nagarjuna Sagar and is used for irrigation purposes. According to officials, there is no wastage of water as it would end up in another reservoir instead of Srisailam and both reservoirs are shared by the sibling states. In Nagarjuna Sagar, the water level on Monday was 274.09 TMC, which is 23.54 TMC more than what it was on a corresponding day last year (250.55 TMC).

While there are no inflows to Srisailam project, inflows to Nagarjuna Sagar as on Monday was at a discharge rate of 9,437 cusecs. According to sources, water utilisation under various projects on Krishna and its tributaries upstream Andhra Pradesh has increased significantly when compared to last year. At the same time, the catchment areas of Srisailam project in Kurnool district have not received much rain compared to other places.  

On the other hand, Pulichintala downstream of Nagarjuna Sagar has marginally more water compared to the previous year. As on date it has 41.24 TMC as against 30.03 on the corresponding day last year. 

According to the water audit from June 1 to January 17, Andhra Pradesh has 338.02 TMC of water as on date, of which 155.1 TMC of water is in reservoirs (major, medium and minor) and 165.37 TMC is groundwater. This water year till date, the State has received inflows of 5,586.87 TMC in the form of rains and 2,538.83 TMC in the form of inflows from other states.  As much as 2,829.9 TMC of water was lost in evapo-transpiration, consumption including irrigation was 851.36 TMC,  river outflow was 2,780.6 TMC, while 1,325.45 was surface and subsurface outflow.