Flood Threat Looms Large In Lower Catchments Of Mahanadi

Bhubaneswar: A flood-like situation in the lower catchments of Mahanadi seems imminent with the release of more floodwaters from the Hirakud Dam.

The dam authorities informed that the floodwaters of Mahanadi are now released through 24 gates. Six more gates were opened in a phased manner late on Wednesday evening.

By 6 am on Thursday, the water level of the dam had reached 628.39 feet against the full reservoir level (FRL) of 630 feet and the inflow and outflow of the floodwater were 4,35,794 cusecs and 4,23,089 cusecs respectively.

Apart from this, the discharge of floodwaters was 5.55 lakh cusecs at Khairmal, 4.74 lakh cusecs at Barmul and 5,96,950 cusecs at Mundali barrage.

According to the district control room in Cuttack, the Mahanadi was flowing at 88.90 feet at Mundali against the danger level of 97.25 feet while at Naraj, the water level of the river was 25.50 metres against the danger level of 26.41 metres. The discharge of the floodwaters through the Naraj barrage was 2,95,677 cusecs.

With the release of about 16,000 cusecs of floodwaters from each of the 12 gates of Hirakud dam on Wednesday, about 1.92 lakh cusecs floodwaters will reach Mundali by Thursday night, Water Resources Department sources said.

Considering the discharge of floodwaters from Mundali this morning, the gross discharge of the floodwater is expected to cross 7 lakh cusecs which will cause low to medium floods in the lower catchments, the sources added.

The flood situation is expected to worsen due to high tides in the sea under the new moon, which will prevent floodwater from getting discharged.