Dry Spell Leads to Poor Water Inflows for Dams

Hyderabad: The dry spell in Telangana continued on Thursday, as the state, barring Kothagudem, Khammam, Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Mahbubabad, Nirmal and Medak — which received 5 cm to 11 cm of rainfall on the day — received scanty rainfall.

All major reservoirs in Telangana, under the Godavari and Krishna basins, are witnessing poor inflows due to the conditions.  

While in 2022, major projects under the Krishna and Godavari had water of 389 tmc ft (thousand million cubic feet), the figure is down to 285 tmc ft, during the same period, this time around. This has had a critical negative impact on agriculture operations in the state as well.

On Thursday, Nizamabad district received 1075.9 mm rainfall, receiving 6,143 mm since June 1, against a normal of 33,525 mm. Of 33 mandals, 21 mandals are reeling from rain deficit.

In the Godavari basin, the Sriramsagar project clocked a water level of 1,066.6 feet and storage of 22.924 tmc ft on Thursday. On the same date in 2022, it had 73.54 TMC ft gross storage and a water level of 1087.1 feet. Inflows reached 10,429 cusecs on Thursday, with Godavari River accounting for 4,629 cusecs from catchment areas and 5,800 cusecs from the flood flow canal in reverse-pumping mode.

The water storage level of the Yellampalli reservoir was recorded at 13.935 tmc ft, against its full capacity of 20.175 tmc ft.

With pumping operations going on at the Kaleshwaram project to lift Godavari water, the water storage level at Lakshmi Barrage increased to 13.555 tmc ft, against its full capacity of 16.17 tmc ft.

In Saraswathi Barrage, the storage level was at 8.06 tmc ft, against its full capacity of 10.87 tmc ft. In Parvathi Barrage, the storage was at 6.357 tmc ft, against its full capacity of 8.83 tmc ft.

In the Krishna basin, Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar continued to witness poor inflows. Water from upstream Karnataka is yet to reach Jurala dam in Mahbubnagar district. After the Narayanpur dam in Karnataka fills to the brim, gates will be lifted to release water to Jurala.

Srisailam dam receives water only after Jurala gates are lifted and Nagarjunasagar dam receives water after the gates of the Srisailam dam are lifted.