A flood alert was issued for the low-lying areas on the banks of the River Cauvery in Karnataka on Tuesday, as dams throughout the river and its tributaries are nearing full storage capability as a result of heavy rainfall within the catchment space.
The most important dam within the Cauvery basin, the Krishnarajasagar (KRS), is just 4 ft away from reaching the utmost reservoir stage of 124.8 ft and continues to obtain important water inflows.
The Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Restricted, in its warning message, has suggested individuals residing on either side of the river and in low-lying areas to maneuver to safer areas as surplus water from the KRS dam shall be launched downstream. Because the water stage on the dam was reaching its full storage stage, “there’s a probability of releasing surplus water various from 15,000 to 30,000 cusecs and this can be elevated at any second,” it mentioned.
KRS, which provides water to Bengaluru, has acquired a complete influx of over 12 thousand million cubic ft (TMC) of water over the previous week, with the present water stage within the dam at 120.78 ft holding 44.04 TMC. On June 18, the gross storage on the dam was 31.32 TMC. Throughout the identical date final yr, KRS had 14.59 TMC of water, round a 3rd of its present storage.
The India Meteorological Division has issued a yellow alert to Karnataka till June 27, as a result of which heavy influx of water to dams within the state is predicted to proceed. Because of the mixed results of heavy pre-monsoon showers in Might and the onset of early monsoon, there have been probabilities of KRS getting stuffed in June itself. Normally, the KRS dam fills up throughout late July or early August.
Massive dams throughout the River Krishna in North Karnataka, too, had been receiving excessive inflows. The gross storage at Almatti dam was at 76.58 TMC, in comparison with 31.03 TMC on the identical date final yr. As of Tuesday morning, the dam was receiving an influx of 83,426 cusecs, with dam authorities sustaining an outflow of 67,000 cusecs.
The 4 dams within the Cauvery basin at the moment have a mixed storage of 97.51 TMC in opposition to a most storage of 114.57 TMC, in comparison with 37.96 TMC final yr. Equally, the six dams within the Krishna basin had been holding 221.65 TMC water in opposition to a full capability of 422.45 TMC. On the identical date final yr, the storage was 87.55 TMC.