Godavari, Krishna rivers in spate in AP, dams fill up

River Godavari continued to be in spate on Tuesday though there was a marginal fall in the inflow at Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage to 14.29 lakh cusecs, hours after crossing the 15 lakh cusecs mark.

Though the second warning signal was continuing at the SAC Barrage in Dowaleswaram, the flood showed a falling trend as inflow from the upstream reduced significantly, officials said.

However, the villages under Polavaram and Devipatnam mandals as well as several in the Konaseema region of East Godavari district may remain marooned for the next couple of days till the flood water completely recedes.

The State Disaster Management Authority said National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and Fire Services personnel remained deployed in the flood-hit villages attending to relief operations.

Meanwhile, the surging flood in river Krishna spilled over at least five crest gates at the Srisailam reservoir as it filled to the brim, holding almost its full capacity of 215 tmc ft, with no flood cushion.

An inflow of over 3.90 lakh cusecs was recorded following heavy rains in upper riparian states of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Water Resources Department officials claimed that they had impounded water for future needs as this was the first time in a decade that the reservoirs filled up.

"We have let out some water into different irrigation systems and also used some for power generation. Rest of it, we released into the river downstream, eventually to flow into the sea," a chief engineer of the department pointed out.

As Srisailam got completely filled up, as much as 4,23,373 cusecs was let out into Nagarjuna Sagar.

Accordingly, the inflow at Nagarjuna Sagar touched 4,13,239 cusecs at 5 pm on Tuesday and that much water was being discharged downstream.

This dam too has been filled up to its capacity of 312 tmc ft.