Odisha govt downgrades flood threat after water flow into Hirakud decreases

BHUBANESWAR: The government on Friday ruled out the possibility of any alarming threat from the impending floods in several parts of the state after a fresh assessment of the situation.
While the inflow of water into the Hirakud reservoir from Chhattisgarh has been gradually waning, the outflow of water from the Mundali barrage near Cuttack at its peak would be below eight lakh cubic foot per second (cusec) early on Saturday. With the exception of Subarnarekha, the water level of all the other major rivers in the state is going down.
Confirming the development, special relief commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Kumar Jena, said, “There may not be a major problem in the Mahanadi river system. The flow of water from the Mundali barrage on Saturday morning would be a little more than 7.5 lakh cusec, but far less than eight lakh cusec, which will not lead to an alarming situation.”
At 12 noon on Friday, the strength of discharge of water at Mundali was around 6.49 lakh cusec. Jena said with no significant rain in the last 24 hours, the quantity of water flowing into the Hirakud reservoir has reduced from five lakh cusec to 4.70 lakh cusec. The reservoir is discharging 4.84 lakh cusec through its 28 sluice gates. Among other rivers, the level of water is receding in Baitarani, Brahmani Budhabalanga and Jalaka. Subarnarekha is the only river where the water level is still rising.
This may cause flood in the low-lying areas of Bhogarai and Baliapal in Balasore. The district administration is prepared to tackle any such eventuality, Jena said.
The SRC sent a message to the district collectors asking them to remain alert in view of the IMD’s fresh prediction of heavy rain for the next three days. He, however, said there is no reason to worry about the rain likely to be triggered by the cyclonic circulation over the Bay of Bengal.
The IMD has issued a yellow warning for the strong possibility of torrential rain at one or two places in Bhadrak, Balasore and Mayurbhanj on Saturday. For Sunday, it has predicted heavy rain in Jajpur, Kendrapada, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Khurda, Puri, Nayagarh, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Kandhamal, Malkangiri and Koraput besides these three other districts.