Water levels swell in reservoirs as heavy inflows continue from Krishna, tributaries

Water levels in all major reservoirs in Telangana continue to keep swelling, with some of them in surplus position already, thanks to constant inflows with the help of rains in the catchment areas for about a month now.

Reservoirs such as Jurala and Srisailam in the Krishna Basin and Singur, Yellampally and Kaddam in the Godavari Basin have already reached surplus position, while water levels in Nagarjunasagar, Sriramsagar and Nizamsagar are fast approaching their capacity. With the weathermen indicating more rains in the offing over the next week or so, the water levels are expected to improve further in projects which still have sizeable flood cushion.

Jurala and Kaddam dams reached the surplus position by the end of August itself, Srisailam and Singur attained similar status earlier this month and the all the inflows into them are being let out for reservoirs downstream.

With the help of continuous heavy outflows from Srisailam from October 12, the water level in Nagarjunasagar reached 559 feet as against its full level of 590 feet as at 8 pm on Tuesday. The water storage was recorded at over 230 TMC ft against its capacity of 312 TMC ft. “Heavy inflows of over 2 lakh cusecs has been reaching Nagarjunsagar constantly since Monday night and for a few hours during the day it reached nearly 3 lakh cusecs”, flood monitoring officials explained.

“Compared to the position of major reservoirs a month ago, the present water levels give a lot of relief as the drinking water needs till next July and irrigation needs to a large extent can be amply addressed with the available water”, a senior official in the Irrigation Department said.

(eom)