TS, AP to get dam water from dead storage levels
Drastic step due to poor rains
Considering the growing demand for drinking water in TS and AP, the Krishna River Management Board has ordered release of 9 TMC ft of water from the “balanced storage” available at Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar dams.
This release is being considered as the last withdrawal of water from the dams, especially from the dead storage levels, due to failure of monsoon as well as poor inflows in 2015.
However, the KRMB has decided to keep about 10 TMC ft of water from both dams available at the lower levels “for any eventuality of delayed monsoon in 2016” and also for utilisation in June 2016.
Srisailam Dam Minimum Draw Down Level (MDDL) is 854 ft against a Full Reservoir Level of 885 ft. On Saturday it stood at 785.3 ft, with 22.41 TMC ft storage. With the KRMB’s decision, water will now be drawn down to 775 ft.
At Nagarjunasagar Dam, the MDDL is 510 ft against an FRL of 590 ft. On Saturday, it was 506.7 ft.
In order to ensure that water reaches the Prakasam barrage, 180 km downstream, to cater to the drinking needs of Krishna and Guntur districts including the cities of Vijayawada and Guntur, water will be released from Nagarjunasagar Dam down to the level of 503 ft through river sluice gates.
LAST withdrawal of water from dams due to poor inflows in 2015.
CITY water board will be forced to use emergency pumps to meet daily needs.
The Krishna River Management Board has ordered release of 9 TMC ft of water from the “balanced storage” available at Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar dams.
With withdrawal of water at much below the stipulated levels, the Hyderabad Metro Water Board will now be forced to use emergency pumps to meet the daily drinking water needs of the city of around 270 million gallons.
Executive director of the Water Board K. Satyanarayana said, “Telangana engineer-in-chief C. Muralidhar had advised us to be ready to operate the emergency motors for pumping water to Puttamgandi as the water level at Nagarjunasagar was likely to go further down as per the orders of the KRMB.”
The KRMB in its orders stated: “Considering the ultimate level of 765 ft for Srisailam and 499 ft for Nagarjunasagar dam, it is assessed that about 10 TMC ft of water will be available for any eventuality of delayed monsoon and also for utilisation in June 2016.”