Krishna Raja Sagar Dam inching towards dead storage level of 74.76 feet

Mysore:  Mysuru is staring at imminent drinking water crisis as the Harangi Reservoir in Kodagu, the main source of water to the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) Dam in Mandya that supplies water to Mysuru and surrounding areas, has reached the dead storage level. And the bad news is that even the KRS Dam is inching towards the dead storage level. To make matters worse, it has not been raining in Kodagu, the catchment of River Cauvery, due to delayed monsoon.

The maximum water level at KRS is 124.8 feet and the dead storage level is 74.76 feet and today’s level is 79.82 feet. Water is unfit for drinking purposes once the level reaches the dead storage. Apart from people of Mysuru and Bengaluru, 47 towns and 625 villages depend on Cauvery water from KRS for their daily needs.

The maximum water level at Harangi is 2,859 feet and today’s level strands at 2,806.66 feet. Harangi received just 1 mm rainfall since the last 24 hours and there is an inflow of 181 cusecs and there is an outflow of 50 cusecs (both river and canal combined). When it is at the maximum level (2,859 feet), Harangi Dam can hold 8.5 tmcft of water and today’s level (2,806.66 feet) indicates that there is only 1.5 tmcft of water and this is the dead storage level.

In the last 24 hours, Kodagu district has only received 7.7 mm rainfall. While Madikeri Taluk received 7.2 mm, Somwarpet Taluk received 2.2 mm while Virajpet Taluk received 7.2 mm rainfall.

According to Harangi Dam engineers, water level may go further down the dead storage level if it does not rain in the next two to three days. Agricultural activity has been severely affected in Kodagu as farmers are awaiting the rain.  

Water level in KRS Reservoir, built across the Cauvery near Srirangapatna, is inching towards dead storage level and this has left the authorities concerned. Today’s level at KRS stood at 79.82 feet against the maximum level of 124.8 feet. There is an inflow of 203 cusecs and an outflow of 324 cusecs. Yesterday’s level stood at 79.86 feet and the inflow was 203 cusecs while the outflow was 324 cusecs.  On June 21, the water level stood at 79.90 feet and there was an inflow of 153 cusecs and outflow of 324 cusecs. Last year, on June 23, the water level at KRS stood at 105 feet with an inflow of 82.06 cusecs and an outflow of 3,463 cusecs.

Last year on June 22, the level stood at 104.50 with an inflow of 77.76 cusecs and an outflow of 1,961 cusecs. On June 21 last year, the level stood at 103.85 feet with an inflow of 6,694 cusecs and an outflow of 389 cusecs. The live storage (usable water) of the reservoir is 6.36 tmcft, as against its maximum capacity of 49.45 tmcft.