Reduced rainfall in western and south Maharashtra led to reduced release of water into the Krishna river’s tributaries in Belagavi on Saturday.
Officials estimate that the released water peaked at 68,000 cusecs by Saturday morning and reduced to around 60,000 cusecs by evening. “If this situation continues, there will be no fresh releases by Sunday evening,” an irrigation officer said. Officials analyse that dry spell for 3-4 days would stabilise the water levels in Doodha Ganga and Veda Ganga rivers, pushing back the water gradient to June first week levels. “However, if the rainfall increases suddenly and the release crosses one lakh cusecs per day, we would be forced to evacuate the low lying villages,” an Irrigation Department engineer said.
Rainfall stopped in most places in Belagavi district except in Khanapur taluk that continued to receive rains. But it was less than the amount received on Friday. As many as six bridge-cum-barrages continued to remain under water. Officials said they would be free for carrying traffic if the dry spell continued at least for three days.
NDRF teams from Hyderabad and SDRF teams from Bengaluru have arrived in villages along the Krishna banks. The officers are training police and panchayat officials in preparing for flash floods. A team of NDRF officials organised an online training workshop for gram panchayat officials in Athani and Chikkodi taluks on Saturday.
Assistant Commissioner Ravindra Karilingannanavar said that there were separate rules for evacuation of villages with old and new COVID cases. “These facts are being brought to the notice of ground level workers, police and panchayat officials,” he said.
