Mahanadi floodwater affects villages in lower catchments in Odisha

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Cuttack/Sambalpur, Aug 2:

Contrary to the claim of the Odisha Hirakud dam authorities that the excess water of Mahanadi river, being released from the reservoir, would pose no flood threats in the lower catchments, the latest reports have said the floodwater has entered some villages in the Cuttack district.

Road communication between Tigiria and Chasahara village under Athgarh block has been disrupted following overflowing of floodwater of Mahanadi while road communication between Athagarh and Subarnapur village has been cut off as the floodwater was flowing at a height of about three feet over Huluhula nullah bridge at Ghodabara village.

In Narsinghpur sub-division the floodwater of Mahanadi has entered into Padamala village in Kanpur block. The floodwater that was flowing at a height of five feet on Gopalpur-Padamala road has severed road communication between Padamala and Kanpur block.

Reports from Badamba block said that the floodwater of Mahanadi has entered the premises of Maa Bhattarika temple.

According to reports, the water level at the Hirakud reservoir has gone up to 623.95 feet by 6 AM this morning.

While 4.08 lakh cusecs of floodwater per second was entering the reservoir, 4.02 lakh cusecs of water per second was being released from 24 open gates.

Talking to the media, chief engineer of the Hirakud Dam Biswajit Mohanty said the released floodwater would reach Mundali barrage at Cuttack in the next 48 hours i.e. by July 3.

“While the floodwater of Ib river has subsided, around 2.5 lakh cusecs of water of the river has entered the Mahanadi river. With this, the gross inflow of floodwater at Mundali barrage would be around 6.5 to 7 lakh cusecs in the next three days till July 4”, he said.

He, however, insisted that despite the release of the excess water, there is no flood threat in the lower catchments.