The outflow from Almatti dam is likely to be increased from Saturday. This is because the Maharashtra government has asked the Karnataka government to maintain a water storage between 518 metres and 518.5 metres at the Lal Bahadur Shastri reservoir over the Krishna in Almatti to avoid flooding in the riparian areas.
Following this, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Belagavi H.B. Boodeppa has urged Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd. to release water from Almatti to avoid flooding in Belagavi, and Bagalkot districts.
“This means that Maharashtra will continue to release water into Belagavi and Bagalkot districts in the coming days and that the water levels in the Krishna and its tributaries like Doodha Ganga, Veda Ganga and Pancha Ganga will increase. Since impounding of water in Almatti might lead to flooding in the catchment and river basin areas, Maharashtra has urged us to release more water from Almatti and ensure lower levels in the river in the catchment and basin areas,” said a senior officer.
“As on Friday, the outflow from Almatti is at the rate of 2.3 lakh cusecs. This is likely to increase by around 50,000 cusecs,” the officer said. In an email to the Deputy Commissioners of Belagavi and Bagalkot, the District Collector and District Magistrate (Disaster Management unit) of Sangli, Maharashtra, has requested maintaining the water level between 518 m and 518.5 m.
This will help monitor the flood in the sub-basin smoothly, the officer said.
Earlier, in an inter-State coordination committee meeting in Mumbai on May 16, both States had agreed to maintain the level between 518m and 518.9 m.
However, owing to heavy rain in the Krishna, and the Warana basins, the water level in all reservoirs has increased to around 80% of their storage capacities.
This is based on the hydrological data supplied by the superintending engineer in Sangli.
Published - August 03, 2019 12:13 am IST
