The state government, faced with a crisis-like situation with no major inflows in dams, has decided to move the AP High Court for relaxation of its orders on maintaining minimum level of Srisailam Dam, in order to supply water to standing crops under Krishna Delta as well as to Vijayawada Thermal Power Station.
The High Court, in two separate orders, had directed the government not to release water below 510 feet from Nagarjunas-agar Dam and below 834 feet from the Srisailam Dam. This resulted in sto-ppage of water to Krishna Delta from NS Dam for the last 15 days. But due to heavy rains in Warangal and Khammam, Prakasam Barrage has received good inflows in the last 10 days which can ensure water supplies to 13 lakh acres of paddy nurseries.
But on Saturday, Prakas-am Barrage recorded 792 cusecs inflow against the requirement of 7,000 cusecs per day. In addition, the 2,500 MW Vijayawada Thermal Power Station has been facing severe water shortage due to reduced level at the Barrage.
It is mandatory that 12 feet water level should be maintained at Prakasam Barrage to ens-ure water supply to the thermal power station at Ibrahimpatnam near Vijayawada. The present level is 10.2 feet at the barrage making the situation critical.
At NS Dam, though dead storage waters (131 TMC ft) could be released to Prakasam Barrage, the HC orders have forced the authorities to maintain the level at 510 feet. It could be a major problem for the drinking water supply to the capital, if water levels go below 510 feet MDDL (Minimum Draw Down Level) as the whole system is designed to function at that level.
The government had released water from NS Dam by opening river sluices of upstream Srisailam Dam and maintained the level at 510 feet. But following HC orders not to release water from Srisailam Dam below 834 feet when the dam level was at 797 feet, the authorities stopped the release of the balance 47 TMC ft of water to NS Dam.
Meanwhile, due to some recent inflows into Srisailam Dam, the level has gone up to 831 feet and the capacity had increased to 81.44 TMC ft on Saturday.
Srisailam inflows also reduced from 70,000 cusecs to 12,104 cusecs. With poor inflows, Srisailam Dam presently cannot hope to go beyond the 834 ft mark, while NS Dam on Saturday touched the 510 ft MDDL mark.
MLAs from Krishna, Gu-ntur, Prakasam and West Godavari districts met Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and demanded release of wate-rs from NS Dam to Prakas-am Barrage to save the standing crops. The CM promised to take appropriate measures.