A flood of over 3.5 lakh cusecs is heading for the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) in the Krishna.
An outflow of 1.42 lakh cusecs from the Almatti reservoir and 2.2 lakh cusecs from the Tungabhadra reservoir will flow through the Srisailam reservoir, which is 81% full, and head for the NSP, which has a flood cushion of over 161 tmcft.
Level at Srisailam
The Srisailam reservoir, which recorded an inflow of 2,75,928 cusecs on Friday morning, had to discharge nearly one lakh cusecs downstream to ensure water did not flow over the radial gates.
The water level in the reservoir touched 879 ft, just six feet below the Full Reservoir Level of 885 ft., by evening.
Srisailam received more water from the Tungabhadra reservoir, which recorded an inflow of 2,01,633 cusecs and was 91% full.
Water from the upper reaches of the Krishna has to be discharged by the respective reservoirs because they are full right up to the brim.
At Almatti
“The Almatti reservoir, which is receiving over one lakh cusecs, is dangerously full (97% ) with a flood cushion of less than 5 tmcft,” A.P. Irrigation Engineers said.
The dam would have to increase the discharge if the inflows increased any further, they said.
The flood cushion for the Tungabhadra reservoir is also about 5 tmcft, which the engineers feel is “dangerously low” considering the fact that it is recording an inflow of over two lakh cusecs.
“This is happening because the respective States are trying to retain maximum amount of water,” they say.
“The flood cushion in the two relatively small Narayanapur and Jurala reservoirs downstream Almatti is less than one tmcft each,” the engineers said.
Farmers jubilant
The Krishna delta farmers are, however, jubilant because the flood water from the upper reaches of the river are coming right up to Nagarajuna Sagar after a long gap.
Flood recedes
Meanwhile the flood at the mouth of the Godavari has receded a little with 4.35 lakh cusecs being discharged into the Bay of Bengal from the Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowleswaram.
