The engineers trying to erect a new gate are finding the work tough because of the presence of a huge amount of water in the reservoir.
Published Aug 12, 2024 | 4:54 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 12, 2024 | 4:54 PM
Water flowing out of Tungabhadra dam.
A deluge of water is gushing downstream of the Tungabhadra Dam in Hosapet in Karnataka following a breakage in one of its crest gates, posing a threat to the people living in downstream villages in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
After the dam’s 19th crest gate was washed away in the small hours of Sunday, 11 August, following huge inflows, there has been no let up in the flow of water downstream at the rate of about one lakh cusecs.
The engineers trying to erect a new gate are finding the work tough because of the presence of a huge amount of water in the reservoir.
Though the inflows into the reservoir have come down, the reservoir is full up to its brim. As of 12 August, the outflow from the dam was 99,567 cusecs while the inflows have reduced to 25,571 cusecs.
The Tungabhadra Dam was commissioned in 1953 across the Tungabhadra River in the Hosapete-Koppal confluence.
As against the dam’s maximum capacity of 105.78 tmcft, the present storage is about 97.75 tmcft. Of the one lakh cusecs of water currently discharged from its crest gates, 35,000 cusecs of water alone is taking place from the gap where the 19th crest gate had been.
There is no way the flood could be stopped until the water volume in the reservoir comes down to about 53 tmcft.
The engineers are understood to have expressed helplessness in fixing a new gate until at least 60 tmcft of water is drained out which is 60 percent of the present storage.
As downstream reservoirs — Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar — are already full, the additional inflow would have to be allowed to flow downstream and join the Bay of Bengal, a colossal waste of precious water.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday, 12 August, rushed a team of experts to Hosapet led by water resources Minister Nimmala Rama Naidu.
The team will hold talks with the engineers on when and how they will set up the gate.
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have their engineers-in-chiefs as members of the Tungabhadra Dam board as it is an inter-state project and the cost of the maintenance of the dam is borne equally by all the three states.
Chandrababu Naidu who reviewed the situation on Sunday had sent a team of central design commissioner and design engineers while putting on alert the people in Kautalam, Kosigi, Nandavaram and Mantralyam mandals in erstwhile Kurnool district which are situated along the banks of the river.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Sivakumar, after inspecting the dam, told reporters on Sunday that the new gate would be fixed within a week.
“The volume of water in the reservoir should be reduced to 53 tmcft before restoration of the gate could begin,” he said, adding that he would hold talks with chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana — N Chandrababu Naidu and A Revanth Reddy — on what should be done to ensure the safety of the dam.
As about 60 tmcft has to be released, it would be done at the rate of about 10 tmcft per day for the base of the crest gate to emerge from water.
Rayadurgam TDP MLA Kaluva Srinivasulu who visited the dam said: “The gate was washed away because of lapse in maintenance. Already 120 tmcft water has been let out and now another 53 tmcft water has to go waste.”
The farmers in Kurnool and Anantapur districts are worried that they may not have water for their second crop as Tungabhadra Dam’s Low-Level canal serves 2.84 lakh acres in Kadapa and Anantapur districts while the High-Level Canal serves 1.05 lakh acres in Kurnool districts.
There is no problem for water for the present Kharif since water has already been released but by the time rabi arrives, there might be no water in Tungabhadra.
If the reservoir impounded 100 tmcft of 105 tmcft which is its maximum storage, there would have been no problem for the two crops.
Last year, because there were poor inflows into the Tungabhadra, the farmers had difficulty for water for the second crop. This time too they face the problem, though there have been torrential rains and huge inflows into the dam, there might be no water since about 60 tmcft is being let out to facilitate replacement of the crest gate.
The officials told the media that the gate was washed away for about 100 metres when the metal chain that holds the gate snapped at its weakest point where welding was done in the past.
The chain link became very old — about 70 years — which led it to break. As water is being let out continuously from the dam, the Sunkesula reservoir downstream is also getting huge inflows.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil)
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