Chairman of the Central Water Commission R.K. Gupta has rejected consideration of backwater effect to various States owing to Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) at Polavaram project.
He voiced his stand at a technical meeting convened by CWC in New Delhi on Friday to address the concerns of States affected by backwater of Polavaram in the backdrop of a Supreme Court order and as agreed at a meeting of Ministry of Jal Shakti, a release said.
Mr. Gupta told the meeting that the major concerns of States -- Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Telangana --were spillway designed flood, backwater effect for Standard Project Flood and PMF and protection measures to be provided for affected areas as per Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal.
The release added that Chhattisgarh called for finalising the PMF value for the design as well as backwater effect as various studies reported PMF up to 58 lakh cusecs. Odisha also pressed for consideration of 58 lakh cusecs PMF for both the spillway design and backwater effects. The State emphasised limitations in backwater study of CWC/Andhra Pradesh, operation protocol, hydrology and statutory clearances for its convenience. Until these things are settled and finalised, the acceptance for public hearing and joint survey is not acceptable to Odisha.
Telangana wanted fresh backwater study to be undertaken in view of anomaly between the CWC projected backwater effect based on mathematical modelling values to the actual observed flood events.
Telangana also highlighted the impact of floods in Godavari in July which affected 28,000 inhabitants and 11,000 families covering 103 villages. The State also focused on standing water effect when water is impounded and maintained at FRL. It agreed to a joint survey covering all major streams on either side of Godavari.
Andhra Pradesh agreed to extend cooperation for the joint survey, the release added. Engineers-in-Chief of Irrigation V.K. Indrajeet (Chhattisgarh), Ashutosh Dash (Odisha), C. Muralidhar (Telangana) and C. Narayana Reddy (AP) attended.
