Maharashtra to release water, northern Karnataka faces fresh threat of flooding

BENGALURU/HUBBALLI/KALABURAGI: North Karnataka faced the prospect of fresh floods after Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis called his Karnataka counterpart BS Yediyurappa and urged him to release water from the Almatti dam in order to accommodate inflows from overflowing rivers in the neighbouring state.
Fadnavis claimed Kolhapur in Maharashtra was on the verge of being flooded.
Districts in North Karnataka are yet to recover fully from last month’s flooding, caused primarily by Maharashtra releasing massive quantities from its dams into the Krishna and Malaprabha rivers.
Currently, about 1.65lakh cusecs is being released from Almatti dam every day, but Maharashtra wants it stepped up. “The request is to release 2lakh cusecs, which is manageable,” said Rakesh Singh, principal secretary, water resources department. “Hopefully rain in Maharashtra will subside and the situation will improve.”
Water resources department officials say the government has agreed to the request as the river basin is capable of handling up to 2.5lakh cusecs without damaging infrastructure. However, the bigger worry is if Maharashtra releases water from Koyna dam. Officials say currently about 1.5lakh cusecs from Koyna flows into Almatti.
“This could increase to 1.7lakh cusecs over the next few days,” said one official. “If Maharashtra steps it up to 2lakh cusecs, then there is cause for worry as the total outflow from Almatti will go up to 6lakh cusecs. This is certain to cause flooding here.” The silver lining though is that rain is receding in catchment areas of the Krishna river.
Kalaburagi, Raichur, Belagavi and Gadag districts have been put on high alert on account of rising levels of Krishna and Malaprabha rivers. As many as 29 villages located on the banks of Malaprabha and 26 villages along Krishna are facing a threat of flood.