In the face of near despair as the two giant reservoirs in state, Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar continue to record nil inflow, there is something to cheer about. Almatti Dam, the first major project on upstream River Krishna in Karnataka released its first flood water to downstream Narayanapur project on Thursday.
If the current scenario continues, the state will be faced with one of the worst crisis not due to non-supply of water to the agricultural sector and power generation needs, but because of acute shortage of drinking water requirements of several villages, towns and cities which are completely dependent on water from these two dams until the next monsoon. According to the three-year data of recordings at Srisailam Dam, there were considerable inflows as against nil inflows this season.
The good news from the upstream Karnataka projects particularly the Almatti and Tungabhadra projects has brought a ray of hope. Almatti Dam received flood water of around 90,000 cusecs and officials hope this trend will continue for at least a month so that Srisailam could get good inflows. For the first time in this season, Almatti Dam officials released 14,000 cusecs of waters to downstream Narayanapur Dam in Karnataka. Almatti Dam at 1705 feet Full Reservoir Level (FRL) with 129.72 TMC ft capacity, the present level is 1693 ft with 79 TMC ft. Last year the level was 1701 ft and capacity was 110 TMC on the same day. Narayanapur Dam against the FRL of 1615 ft and capacity 38 TMC ft, presently is at 1600 ft and 20 TMC ft started receiving flood inflow of about 10,330 cusecs. Unless inflows into Almatti and Narayanapur further rises to its brim, the remaining flood waters will be automatically let off to Srisailam Dam.
Similarly, Tungabhadra Dam in Karnataka, has also started receiving 21,000 cusecs. Against the FRL of 1633 ft, capacity of 100 TMC ft, the Tungabhadra Dam as of today is at 1610.6 ft with capacity of 37 TMC ft. “August and September are crucial months for us. We hear there is going to be an El Nino effect in September, so August should bring good inflows into Srisailam,” said M. Krishnarao, the chief engineer of Srisailam Dam.