Flood threat to Nellore recedes further

Rains abate in catchment areas of Somasila reservoir

The threat of floods receded further with rains abating in the catchment areas of the Somasila reservoir on Wednesday.

The inflow into the reservoir from the peak level of 1.48 lakh cusecs on Sunday, came down drastically to 25,972 by Wednesday evening as the Penna pacified.

The flood situation improved further with the flow in the Penna and its tributary Kundu dipping drastically, Somasila Superintending Engineer N. Krishna Rao said while keeping a close vigil on the water flow.

The entire water quantity was discharged from the reservoir downstream, including 11,500 cusecs to Kandaleru reservoir, to maintain a flood cushion of 4 tmcft of water in the reservoir which now had a storage of 73.86 tmcft of water against the maximum capacity of 78 tmcft of water.

The storage in Kandaleru reservoir, which caters to the drinking water needs of Chennai and Tirupati, went up to a healthy 42.67 tmcft. The discharge was maintained at 1,810 cusecs. The reservoir still had a flood cushion of 25.36 tmcft of water, according to report compiled by the Irrigation Department.