Officials on high alert as reservoirs filled to brim

Hyderabad: Water levels in all major reservoirs on river Krishna and Godavari reached Full Reservoir Levels (FRL) with the steady inflows due to recent heavy rains. Perhaps, first time in the recent years, every project constructed on the two major rivers in Telangana were filled with water full to their capacity.

As the weather forecaster, Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), already predicted heavy to very heavy rains in majority of the districts in the State in next three days, the State irrigation department alerted district authorities to keep a vigil on the safety of all water bodies, canals and projects.

The IMD officials said that the well-marked low pressure area lies over west central Bay of Bengal and north Andhra coast with associated cyclonic condition. Under its influence, rainfall distribution and intensity were expected to increase over Telangana in the next three days.

With copious inflows from the catchment areas and heavy rains in the upper riparian state of Karnataka, the Jurala project water levels have reached the FRL of 1,045 feet. The water levels in Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar reservoirs also touched the FRL of 885 and 590 feet respectively.

Officials said that all the projects on Krishna were brimming with heavy inflows. While 1.43 lakh cusecs of water was discharged from Srisailam, 1.17 lakh cusecs were discharged from Nagarjunasagar.

The major projects on Godavari have been flooding with heavy inflows due to heavy rains in catchment areas in Maharashtra. Lower Manair dam, Sripada Yallampally and Sriram Sagar projects are overflowing. As a precaution, spillway gates were lifted at Sriram Sagar and water was discharged to prevent the submergence of the surrounding villages.

The Irritation department had already deployed special teams to all project sites to monitor the flood situation from time to time. People dwelling in small habitations nearby the projects were asked to vacate in view of the threat from the over-flowing reservoirs. The authorities are also monitoring the safety of water bodies and canals to check the breach of the structures.