Reservoir Level at Hirakud Drops Below 622 ft As Planned, Possible Flood Threat In 4 Rivers: Odisha SRC

Bhubaneswar: The target to bring the water level at Hirakud Dam below 622 ft by 12 noon has been achieved and floodwaters are currently being discharged from 20 gates,  Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Jena said on Friday.

“The water level in the reservoir stood at 621.93 ft. Though four more gates have been closed, we will try to bring it further down to 620.5ft by Saturday morning,” he said during the media briefing.

The inflow of water into the reservoir is 3.23 lakh cusec against the outflow of 4.06 lakh cusec.

“There has been no breach in the Mahanadi river embankments since yesterday, but villages are still inundated. Things will improve once water flow at Mundali falls below 9 lakh cusec,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Mahanadi was flowing at 26.74 meter against the danger mark of 26.41 metre at Naraj in Cuttack district and the discharge ar Mundali was 9.56 lakh cusec at 12 noon.

The SRC further said that a possible flood threat has increased in four rivers amid the IMD forecast that the depression over the Bay of Bengal is likely to intensify into a deep depression. “The system will trigger more rains in Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Sundargarh districts. The water level in reservoirs in these four districts, however, has reduced,” he said.

Baitarani, Subarnaekha, Budhabalanga and Salandi rivers are currently in focus while a close watch is being kept on Brahmani as well.

“We have gone through various models, only JTWC predicts a tropical cyclone. IMD’s forecast suggests the system will cross the coast as a deep depression. However, the possibility of a cyclone cannot be ruled out. We are fully prepared to tackle any eventuality,” he added.

The SRC informed that about 2,77, 995 people have been so far affected by the flood while 2,43,343 among them supplied relief till Thursday. Besides, 159 medical camps have been set up and 110 mobile health teams are on the move. He also mentioned about five snake bite cases.

“Cooked food is being served to the affected people and relief will be provided for 15 days in 5 districts and for 7 days in the other 5 districts affected by floods as per the announcement by the chief minister,” he added.