More than 560 TMC of the Krishna’s floodwaters has been discharged from the Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada this season, making this the highest volume of water to be discharged into the sea from here in the last five years.
According to the information, the Water Resources Department (WRD) officials have been discharging floodwaters frequently from Prakasam Barrage during this season.
“In July, 35.02 TMC of floodwater was discharged from the barrage into the sea. In August, the figure jumped to 339.82 TMC. In this month, the outflow was 121.77 TMC till September 10, and rose to 158.41 TMC as of September 11. On September 12 alone, 31.01 TMC of floodwater was discharged, taking September’s total outflow to 189.42 TMC. The total discharge this season has been 564.26 TMC,” said WRD Vijayawada Vijayawada Irrigation Circle Superintending Engineer (SE) Sesham Tirumala Rao.
For the first time in the past six years, Prakasam Barrage received the highest amount of floodwater from the catchment areas, and the same was discharged into the sea. Officials said that the floodwaters began reaching the barrage in July, and that the high inflows have been continuing ever since.
Officials say that no surplus water was discharged into the sea in 2017, while 2018 saw a floodwater surplus of 38.67 TMC. In 2019, 339.43 TMC excess water was released into the sea. Similarly, 154.41 TMC of floodwater was discharged from the barrage in 2020 while it was 256.31 TMC in 2021, officials said.
More than 263.62 TMC of the Krishna floodwaters flowed into the sea in just 19 days. The cumulative surplus into the sea from June 1, 2022, to August 24 stood at 300.64 TMCs, while it was 173.30 TMC in the previous year. From August 25, 2022, to September 12 the discharge into the sea was 263.62 TMC. Compared to the previous years, in 2019, the flood discharged from Prakasam Barrage was 339.43 TMC from June 1, 2019, to September 12. This year, more than 224.83 TMC excess surplus water was released into the sea. Also, the Central Water Commission (CWC) issued the first flood warning twice and the second time it continued for two days, officials said.
