Release of flood from Ujjani dam across Bhima river, a tributary of Krishna, in Maharashtra from the early hours of Wednesday and from Narayanpur reservoir across Krishna in Karnataka since the noon on Thursday has revived the hopes of farmers under major projects and irrigation systems based on them in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Thanks to the fresh spell of rains in the western ghats and the other catchment areas of reservoirs in the Upper Krishna Basin in Maharashtra and Karnataka, some flood is being let into Bhima and Krishna rivers. According to forecast for the catchment areas there the flood release is expected to continue for about a week as only a month’s time is left for conclusion of the south-west monsoon season.
Rock bottom
Water levels in the two inter-state reservoirs Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar have hit the rock bottom this season due to lack of any signification inflows. The position of Jurala and Pulichintala reservoirs is comparably better as they received some amount of water, thanks to the rains in the local catchment areas. “Jurala has received about 17 TMC ft flood so far this season, while Pulichintala has got nearly 7 TMC ft,” flood monitoring officials at Jurala said, when contacted.
“Lack of proper distress sharing mechanism in the Krishna Basin, release of proportionate flood by the upper riparian States to the lower riparian areas in distress situations, has allowed the upper riparian States to utilise water for irrigation needs as it reached their reservoirs this season”, the officials said. Water is being utilised for irrigation needs for about a month now under all major reservoirs in the upper riparian States even as the lower riparian States are faced shortage of water even for drinking needs. Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar and Pulichintala reservoirs in the Krishna Basin require about 430 TMC ft water to reach their capacity in full with the first two projects needing 390 TMC ft together. Another inter-state project Tungabhadra, located in Karnataka, also required another 50 TMC ft for attaining its full capacity.
“Water release from Narayanpur was started from the noon on Thursday with generation of power and it was increased to about 21,000 cusecs including the release from the spillway that commenced an hour later. However, a sizeable quantity of over 62,000 cusecs was being released from Ujjani from early hours of Wednesday from the spillway and it is expected to reach Jurala in the next couple of days,” the officials explained.
