Heavy rain across Belagavi district on Saturday and Sunday brought succour to residents and farmers in towns and villages.
The district received nearly 400 mm of rainfall in about 50 hours.
Gokak taluk received the highest rainfall at 140 mm, followed by Hukkeri 128 mm, Khanapur 115 mm and Belagavi 91 mm.
In Belagavi city, roads were flooded and water entered houses in some areas. Nurses and assistants had to flush out water that had collected in the ground floor staircase of the district hospital. On Hindalga Road, residents struggled for hours to flush out water from their houses. Some used pumps while others threw out water using buckets and pots.
Water levels in the Malaprabha increased with its catchment area in Khanapur taluk receiving heavy rainfall. Rain that continued till Sunday evening, led to forceful flow in the river that takes birth near Kanakumbi village. The Maruti temple in Habbanahatti was submerged in the Malaprabha, with access to it cut off.
Water was gushing out loudly in the jungles of Khanapur and entering the plains of Saundatti. Irrigation officials have recorded an inflow of 2.5 tmcft into the Naviluteertha reservoir on the Malaprabha near Saundatti. The dam with a gross capacity of 37.73 tmcft also recorded an outflow of around 165 cuses on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, revenue officials visited the Rajapur dam in Maharashtra from where water is being released into the Krishna river. They saw that the water is flowing below the parapet wall of the dam and could flow over the dam in the next few days.
Maharashtra officials told them that about 20,000 cusecs of water is being released from Rajapur. Water from Panchaganga, a tributary of the Krishna, is joining the flow near Narasobawadi, situated on the western side of Rajapur.
Assistant Commissioner Ravindra Karilingannanavar, Tahsildar Santosh Biradar and other officials were present.
Karnataka Irrigation officials have assured that were was no immediate threat of floods in the Krishna. “Floods are possible when the inflow increases by a factor of five. Sudden release of around 1.1 lakh cuses led to floods in 2006. Now, the inflow is around 20,000 cusecs and there is no threat of floods,” said an Irrigation Department officer.
