969 tmcft Krishna water discharged into sea

Vijayawada: For the first time in its recent history the River Krishna has been in full spate for the past five months. The river has been witnessing heavy floods since the start of the rainy season this year. According to Irrigation officials, above one crore six lakh (969 tmcft) cusecs (Cubic feet of water flow per second) of the Krishna's floodwater has been discharged from the Prakasam Barrage into the sea in this season so far. As per the calculation, one tmcft is equal to 11,000 cusecs.

It is the highest quantity of water which has drained into the sea in recent years. In 2009, the Prakasam Barrage received flash floods at once at the rate of 11.03 lakh cusecs. Since then the river is overflowing now to that much level. One of the noteworthy issues here is that the Prakasam barrage crest gates have been lifted up for the past few months. They didn't close the gates even for a single day. Due to heavy rains, the River Krishna has been receiving gushing floods from its tributaries, brooks and creeks and the catchment areas.

Since the onset of the monsoon season this year heavy to heavy rains have been lashing down continuously. From starting of June the rain spells are continuing till date. For the last four to five months the weather has continuously been cloudy. Likewise, the day time temperatures are also not above 30 degrees in so many districts across the State due to clouds. Due to the effect of southwest monsoon, heavy rains lashed the coastal districts between June and September and after that due to the effect of northeast monsoon huge rains have been lashing now. It is expected that the northeast monsoon will continue till December.

Because of these rains, River Krishna received heavy floods. In view of these floods the authorities have lifted the Prakasam Barrage crest gates to discharge the floodwater downstream. In July alone 35 tmcft water was discharged from the barrage. Likewise, in August, 340 tmcft and September to till date (October 14) 594 tmcft of water has been discharged from the barrage into the sea. So far from the beginning of the rainy season to till date 1,06,59,000 cusecs of surplus water was discharged from the Prakasam barrage.

The Prakasam barrage received heavy flooding once again on Friday. It received 3.80 lakh cusecs of water from Pulichintala Project. Likewise, flood discharge from Nagarjuna Sagar was 3 lakh cusecs. The irrigation authorities expect that the Prakasam barrage will receive over 4 lakh cusecs of surplus water by Saturday morning. In view of this, the authorities have lifted all the 70 crest gates of the Prakasam barrage.

They lifted 40 gates to a height of 7 ft, and 30 gates to 6 ft level, and discharged over 3 lakh cusecs of water including 6,600 cusecs of water discharged into the canals. In view of this, the executive engineer and river conservator of Krishna central division has issued alert warning to the officers concerned stating, ''It is requested to alert all the officers concerned for taking up precautionary measures to avoid untoward incidents along the Krishna river margin on both upstream and downstream of Prakasam Barrage.''