Continuing rains in South Interior Karnataka region and in the catchment area of the Cauvery has augmented the inflow into Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS).
As a result, the water level in the dam is expected to reach the Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of 124.80 ft on Wednesday. The water level was 123.75 ft at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and the rate of inflow was 16,998 cusecs and is expected to increase further.
Hence, Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd. (CNNL) has issued a flood warning according to which the surplus water will be discharged from the reservoir and the rate of release would be anywhere between 10,000 cusecs and 20,000 cusecs, or above.
The release stated that there was heavy rain in the catchment area of the KRS and the water level was increasing to its full storage capacity. Due to the impending discharge of surplus water, CNNL has appealed to people living on both sides of the river bank downstream of the reservoir and those living in low-lying areas of the Cauvery to move to safer places and take all precautionary measures for the safety to their life and property. This is the first time in decades that KRS has attained FRL as late as in the last week of October.
In a normal year, the dam attains FRL in the last week of July or the first week of August, and depending on the intensity of rains the water level used to be maintained at FRL till as late as November. Also, there have been years when the dam has failed to attain FRL owing to monsoon failure.
This year, the authorities had given up hope of the reservoir attaining FRL as the southwest monsoon was deficient by nearly 25% in the Cauvery catchment area. But the continuous rains in the month of October have not only bridged the deficit, but also put the reservoir on the way to hitting 124.8 ft by Wednesday. The gross storage in the reservoir is 47.871 tmcft, as against the capacity of 49.45 tmcft.
The water level at Kabini reservoir is around 2,283 ft, against the FRL of 2,284 ft, and the gross storage 19.08 tmcft against the capacity of 19.52 tmcft. The cumulative outflow from the reservoir since the onset of monsoon in June was 138 tmcft as on Tuesday, according to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre. This does not include the water accruing due to rains downstream of the KRS-Kabini reservoirs since June.
