With no heavy rainfall occurrence in the catchment areas of Upper Krishna Basin for the last two weeks and no forecast of any sizeable inflows into the upstream reservoirs in Maharashtra and Karnataka, the prospects of two common projects of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh — Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar — by the month-end appear increasingly grim.
As on August 13 evening, the two reservoirs have a flood cushion of about 265 tmc ft and the water storage in Srisailm is receding slowly with the two States resorting to water release to canal systems and power generation, although the water let into the river after power generation would reach Nagarjunasagar.
According to the Irrigation department authorities, Srisailam attained a maximum storage of 123.72 tmc ft for this season against its capacity of 215.81 tmc ft as on August 10. However, it has started depleting with water drawal by the two States for their needs and as at 9 p.m. on August 13 it reached 117.49 tmc ft.
