Poor inflows affecting projects on Godavari
■ Sriramsagar under mercy of rain in upstream Maharashtra
Irrigation projects in the Godavari basin are facing a peculiar situation. Despite 15 lakh cusecs of water being released into the sea at Dowleswaram due to heavy floods, the projects upstream of Godavari like Sriramsagar (SRSP) are not getting good inflow.
The SRSP will receive good inflows only if there is rainfall in upstream Maharashtra. The Babli project in Maharashtra will have to fill to the brim first and only then will Maharashtra release water downstream to the SRSP project.
In Telangana, there are two major irrigation projects directly on the River Godavari apart from several small projects on tributaries of the Godavari. The Yellampalli reservoir receives water at full reservoir level, while the SRSP has not been receiving sufficient inflow. Due to floods in the tributaries of the Godavari River like Pranahitha, Indravati, Sabari and others, Godavari has been receiving heavy inflow of water for its projects.
This water goes to Dowleswaram through Khammam.
There are no projects in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to fill the reservoirs with this water. The capacity of Dowleswaram barrage is around 4 TMC but due to silt in the barrage it is not possible to store more than 2 TMC, the officials said.
The heavy rains in thick forests of Adilabad and Nirmal districts and its catchment area resulted in the Kadem reservoir getting flooded. When the gates of the Kadem reservoir lifted, the flood water reached Yellampalli. If the Polavaram Project construction is completed the Andhra Pradesh government will be able to store water which is now falling into the sea.
If there is heavy rain in Maharashtra, the SRSP will receive inflow of water. If Manjeera gets good inflow, the SRSP will also receive water. A large portion of Manjeera is in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
However, in the catchment area of Manjeera also, there has been no rainfall.
Since the last two days, the SRSP has been receiving inflows to the tune of about 2 lakh cusecs due to the Viswapuri and Gaikwad dams, the gates of which have been opened by Maharashtra.