Water supply to be affected

Drinking water supply by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation to parts of the city like Ajit Singh Nagar was affected on Saturday and would continue to be affected on Sunday too, following particles of the water entering the motors of the Head Water Works at Bhavanipuram.

Municipal Commissioner P.S. Pradyumna said supply to the entire city would not be affected as long as the flood discharge was below the 12 lakh cusecs. Only parts of the city would suffer. “But once the discharge crosses 12 lakh cusecs, all the four plants in Head Water Works will be inundated and we will not be able to supply any water,” Mr. Pradyumna made clear to The Hindu.

He also said that all the areas on the southern side of the National Highway-9 would get “completely submerged” if the discharge went much beyond the 10-lakh cusec mark.

Irrigation officials said that the discharge at 10 p.m. stood at 6.48 lakh cusecs. There was a rise of about 15,000-20,000 cusecs in the discharge with each passing hour, and, hence, the 10-lakh cusec mark would reach only late Sunday evening.

Power generation at two of the six units of Dr. Narla Tata Rao Thermal Power Station (NTTPS) is also likely to be affected if the flood flow crosses the 10 lakh-cusec mark.

The water level at the cooling channel carrying water to the NTTPS was about 19.1 metres on Saturday, and the officials said there would be no problem as long as the water level was below 22 m. If the flood level crosses 10 lakh cusecs, the water level would cross the 22 m-level.

Subsequently, two units, each with a generating capacity of 210 MW, would have to be shut down. However, remaining four units with same capacity would function as usual. The recently added 500 MW unit was generating about 160 MW to 200 MW of power. All these were generating about 1,400 MW of power.