Srisailam dam safe and sound: Official

Srisailam dam authorities have dismissed reports of any threat to the dam on account of water from the reservoir spilling over the dam’s crest gates this Tuesday.

“It was erroneously reported by a section of the media that this was a cause for concern over the dam’s safety. Up to 10 per cent of flood water can safely splash over the dam,” Narayana Reddy told. “The dam is designed with a provision to allow water to splash over,” he said.

Narayana Reddy said there was enough buffer room in the reservoir for the fresh inflows before the crest gates were lifted and there was never any danger or threat to the dam. Usually, the wind over the water spread blows in the same South-Westerly direction as the river’s flow and that resulted in some waves contributing to the splash effect,



he explained.

Though Srisailam dam began receiving upwards of two lakh cusecs of water by Tuesday with releases from Karnataka’s dams on River Krishna, the crest gates at Srisailam were not lifted to allow the fresh inflows out via the spillway immediately.

It is learnt that some concerns arising from past experiences in sharing water from the reservoir with Telangana, led to less than the desired amount of water available which AP could draw from the reservoir’s backwater areas to meet needs of Rayalaseema region. Water from Srisailam reservoir is shared by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with the Krishna River Management Board adjudicating releases from the reservoir based on the indents placed by the two States.