HYDERABAD: The total quantity of water that has gone waste into the Bay of Bengal from the Godavari and the Krishna in the State during the current floods so far, is estimated to be around 1,500 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet).

The loss is likely to go up further by about 500 tmcft, taking the total to 2,000 tmcft, as the flood situation is likely to continue for a couple of days more as forecast by the Central Water Commission.

The massive quantity is sufficient to feed and sustain six projects of the size of Nagarjunasagar or scores of smaller projects, according to a reckoning made by irrigation officials.

The water lost is equal to 40 per cent of the total availability in the two rivers in a water year — 5,060 tmcft.

The Bachawat Tribunal estimated the annual availability in the Krishna with 75 per cent dependability at 2,060 tmcft and that in the Godavari at 3,000 tmcft. Out of this, Andhra Pradesh gets 811 tmcft from the Krishna and 1,484 tmcft from the Godavari as its share.

Assessment

The officials adopted the standard formula to assess the loss — that if one-lakh cusecs flow out throughout the day from a point, the loss amounts to 10 tmcft.

The outflow from the Krishna (from Prakasam Barrage) is put at 4 lakh cusecs per day on an average for 10 days from August 2. In case of Godavari, only eight days have been taken into consideration.

The loss for each day is put at 20 lakh cusecs per day. It is also estimated that the State lost over 100 tmcf from Nagavali and Vamsadhara.

The heavy loss once again highlights the relevance of taking up irrigation projects on the river systems in the State, which will be able to contain a fraction of this loss.

Projects full

Meanwhile, all the projects in the Godavari basin were full on Sunday like Sriramsagar, Nizamsagar, Manjira, Singur and Ghanpur anicut.

A heavy inflow of 5 lakh cusecs is joining Sriramsagar forcing engineers to open all its 42 crest gates.

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