Sambalpur: The water level in Hirakud Dam in Odisha’s Sambalpur district is rapidly rising due to heavy rainfall in the upper catchment area of the Mahanadi, officials said on Friday.
According to the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), the water level of Hirakud reservoir stood at 615.83 ft, against full capacity of 630 feet, with inflow of 5.13 lakh cusecs and outflow of 0.697 lakh cusecs water by 10 am. “More gates of the dam will be opened in the afternoon in view of the heavy rainfall in upper catchment areas of Chhattisgarh,” Engineer-in-chief, Water Resource Department, Bhakta Ranjan Mohanty told the media.
The floodwater will take around 12 hours to reach Khairamal, he said.
Currently, floodwater is being discharged from two sluice gates of the reservoir. Five districts have been put on high alert – Cuttack, Khurda, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Nayagarh and Kendrapada.
Mohanty further said that the flood situation including in Baitarani and Mahanadi was under control. “There have been reports of breaches at two places but water level of all rivers is receding as there has been no rainfall. Peak flood will pass through low-lying areas of Kendrapada district this afternoon,” he said.
At 10 am, the Baitarani was flowing at the danger mark of 18.23 metre at Akhuapada. The water level reported at Akhuapada was 18.65 metres as against the danger level of 17.83 metres at 8 pm on Thursday. The Brahmani is currently flowing at 21.25 metre against the danger mark of 23 metre at Jenapur, the SRC informed.
Similarly, there has been a drop in water level of the Mahanadi with 6.97 lakh cusec of floodwater being discharged at Mundli at 10 am against 7.43 lakh cusec at 8 am.
Notably, floodwater had inundated roads and bridges and several villages in Banki, Damapada, Badamba and Athagarh blocks were cut off from the outside world in Cuttack district on Thursday. With six feet high floodwater of Mahanadi river flowing on Ghodabar Hulu Hula Nala bridge in Banki, communication on the Subarnapur-Bindhanima road was also severed.
The floodwater also submerged hundreds of acres of paddy fields in nine gram panchayats of Banki and Tigiria blocks.
The administration had deployed a motorboat along with an ODRAF team to tackle any exigency in the block. The floodwater discharge at Mundali was 9.18 lakh cusec last evening while the water level of the Mahanadi at Banki was 7.81 metres against the danger level of 7.78.
The backwater of the Mahanadi river also flooded its tributary Sapua river resulting in the overtopping of floodwater at Tailamala in Rajanagar gram panchayat and Rampei in Dhurusia panchayat, snapping communication at several places and causing extensive damage to farmland in Athagarh block. At least three feet high floodwater was flowing on Old Cuttack-Sambalpur road, Sarpeswar bridge near Katakia Sahi and Bada Bandhiani road.
Floodwaters also inundated low-lying villages in Puri, Kendrapada, and Jagatsinghpur. In Kujang block, a severe breach measuring 20 ft occurred in the Mahanadi near Teramanpur, which lead to the complete inundation of Kotasahi village.
In Angul, 10 ft water was flowing on roads in Tikarpara area due to a flood in the Mahanadi river. Gaindi, Majhipada and Behera Sahi villages were the worst affected. Places in Nayagarh, Boudh, and Sonepur were also heavily waterlogged.
In Jajpur, seven panchayats under Korei and Dasarathpur blocks were cut off due to a flood in Baitarani river. However, the water level of the river at Akhuapada started receding last evening.
