Heavy rains are lashing Andhra Pradesh, but the reservoirs on Krishna and Godavari rivers still have the capacity to hold another 280 tmcft. Ironically, the two rivers had already discharged into the sea 2,175 tmcft since June 1 till today. An average of over three lakh cusecs had been discharged into the Bay of Bengal just on Sunday from the two rivers.
While the inflows of Alamatti and Narayanapur on Krishna are less than 1 lakh cusecs, the inflows to Jurala, above which the Bhima tributary joins the Krishna, have touched 1.70 lakh cusecs on Monday.
As much as 167 tmcft are required to fill Nagarjuna Sagar, the biggest reservoir on Krishna River and 60 tmcft to fill the Tungabhadra Reservoir on the Tungabhadra tributary. The Srisailam Reservoir that has been receiving good inflows towards the latter half of the monsoon registered inflows of 2.13 lakh cusecs from upper reaches. The dam however has the capacity to hold another 26 tmcft.
Irrigation authorities are filling Srisailam at the rate of 1.5 tmcft and a minimum of two weeks would be required to fill it. Only after that would the inflows be released downstream to Nagarjunasagar.
Even in the Godavari Basin, two reservoirs need to be filled. Sriramsagar still has the capacity to hold another 7.58 tmcft and Jaikwad reservoir 22.5 tmcft.
Godavari River which has been in spate from the beginning of the monsoon has already discharged 2,140 tmcft (nearly 10 times of what is needed to fill reservoirs on both the rivers) into the Bay of Bengal starting from June 1 and the Krishna has discharged 36.325 tmcft into the sea during the same period.
The only good news for the Krishna Delta farmers is that the authorities have managed to store 30 tmcft in Pulichintala Project for the first time.
The Pattiseema Project has also been providing water from the Godavari whenever necessary as the river has been in spate throughout.
