The two districts of Krishna and Guntur are bracing to meet any exigency as there is a threat of severe flood in the coming week with irrigation engineers expecting the Prakasam Barrage to receive inflows measuring two lakh cusecs by August 23. The discharge could go up in the days to come.
Alert has been sounded in the two districts and the departments concerned are preparing themselves for any emergency situation. With most parts of Northern Karnataka receiving heavy rainfall and most reservoirs upstream filling to the brim, there are chances that the discharges could go up.
In September 2019, a massive discharge of eight lakh cusecs from the Prakasam Barrage resulted in inundation of low-lying areas in Krishna and Guntur districts.
With heavy discharges from the Srisailam reservoir (3.29 lakh cusecs), the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir is filled to the brim. The current water level at Nagarjuna Sagar is 575.50 feet as against the Full Reservoir Level of 590 feet and with the inflows reaching 1.69 lakh cusecs, the 26 crest gates at Nagarjuna Sagar may be lifted on Friday. The inflows could increase up to three lakh cusecs by Friday evening, according to irrigation engineers.
Telangana irrigation engineers have hinted that crest gates at Sagar could be lifted on Friday morning and the irrigation engineers in A.P. have started taking contingency measures.
Inflows to Pulichintala
The Pulichintala balancing reservoir is also receiving good inflows and the current water level stands at 152.46 feet and the capacity has touched 17.70 TMC as against 45.77 TMC. Since the storage at Prakasam Barrage is minimal at just 3.05 TMC, there could be a massive discharge from the barrage in the coming week.
Guntur District Collector I. Samuel Ananda Kumar on Thursday convened a meeting on the flood situation and asked all the line departments to be ready to face any emergency situation. He asked the irrigation, electricity, revenue and police departments to work with complete coordination and move people in low-lying areas to safety. Villages in the revenue divisions of Gurazala, Tenali and Narsaraopet were prone to flooding, he said.