Kadem dam near brink, TS rain havoc continues

Hyderabad/Adilabad: Heavy rains pounding Telangana, particularly the northern districts, over the past few days have pushed the Kadem dam to the brink of eruption, with state officials on Wednesday night declaring that the situation was “beyond human control”.

The water level of the Godavari river also crossed the third warning level of 53 feet at Bhadrachalam at 11.55 am on Wednesday. Around 4 pm, the water level was 53.1 feet, with officials expecting the water level to rise to 63 feet, not witnessed in decades.

Around 10.30 pm on Wednesday, the Kadem dam was discharging three lakh cusecs of water, the limit for which it was designed.

However, the inflows, following daily rains of 20-30 cm per day in the dam’s catchment areas over the past few days, resulted in a massive inflow of five lakh cusecs.

“It is a once-in-500-years kind of inflows that the dam is experiencing,” an official said.

As of Wednesday evening, the full reservoir level (FRL) of the Kadem dam stood at 705 feet, against a maximum of 700 feet.

The gross neglect of the dam’s maintenance also came to the fore, as officials were able to unable to open one of 18 sluice gates, as it remained dysfunctional. This gate was damaged several years ago but was not repaired. Instead, the bent gate was pulled back into position and sealed, officials told Deccan Chronicle.

BJP MP Soyam Babu Rao blamed the government for not releasing funds for maintenance, claiming it had endangered the lives of thousands.

However, irrigation officials were of the view that the situation would remain grim even if the gate was functioning.

“Even if the 18th gate was functioning, it would have allowed another 20,000 cusecs of discharge. With five lakh cusecs coming in as of evening, and full discharge of three lakh cusecs being managed, there is nothing more anyone can do other than hope that the inflows will fall and the dam stays safe. The only thing that can be done is to limit the damage to lives, which has already been done by evacuating people from potential vulnerable areas in case of a sudden heavy flood from the dam,” an irrigation official told Deccan Chronicle.

Although the structure of the Kadem dam is expected to remain safe, worries about the flanks surfaced, as they are made of earth (clay and mud), instead of concrete. Officials let out around 900 cusecs of water from the dam’s left canal, resulting in a series of breaches of the canal bund.

The canal is an old structure and has not been maintained properly over the years, as a maximum discharge of 450 cusecs was allowed over the past few years. The heavier flow on Wednesday placed additional stress on the structure.

Minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy was near the Kadem dam to oversee evacuations of around 25 villages. However, he had to take a 150-kilometre detour to reach Nirmal, as several downstream areas were flooded and road connectivity cut off.

Large swathes of Khanapur, Kadem, Mamida, and Pandavpur towns, besides villages in the vicinity, suffered power outages for the entire day.

Meanwhile, Bhadradri-Kothagudem collector Anudeep Durishetty raised the alert over possible flooding of the district due to the increase in Godavari’s water levels.

Officials opened 18 sluice gates of the Taliperu medium irrigation project at Cherla to discharge 53,537 cusecs of excess water downstream.

Coal production at SCCL opencast mines in Kothagudem, Yellandu, Manugur and Sathupalli was hampered and coal reserves at stockyards were declining, officials said.

The Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) also received floodwater inflow of 4.18 lakh cusecs against an outflow of 4.56 lakh cusecs, raising fears of flooding in surrounding areas, following which officials opened 32 gates.

The Yellampally project also received an inflow of 11.37 lakh cusecs against an outflow of 12.03 lakh cusecs.

Among other worst-hit parts of the state was Manthani town, which was fully inundated.

Several towns and villages in undivided Karimnagar districts were also submerged.