A flood-like situation has become imminent along the Krishna river in the northern parts of Belgaum district following copious inflow into the river from the dams in upper reaches of Maharashtra on Thursday.
Even though the district administration maintained that there was no immediate threat of floods, precautionary measures to rescue and provide relief to the villagers dwelling along the banks of the river have been kept ready and concerned officials are monitoring the water levels in the river.
According to official sources, due to heavy rainfall in the catchment areas of Krishna river in Koyana, Navza, Mahabaleshwar, Varna, Kolhapur and Sangli in Maharashtra, a huge quantity of water was being released into the Krishna. A total of 1,84,893 cusecs of water has been released from the Rajapur barrage (at Karnataka-Maharashtra border) into the river since Thursday morning.
Subsequently, around 1,73,100 cusecs of water was let out from the Hippargi barrage. The Almatti dam further down has received 1,54,226 cusecs of water and 1,45,685 cusecs released from the dam. The level at the dam on Thursday morning was 518.30 m (the maximum is 519.60 m).