Bhubaneswar, Sept 03: The flood situation in Orissa continued to be grim today with a heavy amount of water flowing down the Mahanadi into Hirakud reservoir in Sambalpur district. Heavy rains in Chhatisgarh, also facing a serious flood situation, had increased the inflow into the reservoir which was anticipated to reach eight lakh cusecs by tonight, official sources told pti.
This would require the dam to discharge a large quantity of water, but it would not pose any further threat to the coastal plains. The floods, which had taken a toll of at least 19 lives, has affected three million people, mostly in six coastal districts.
''Damages had already been caused to the embankments in the Mahanadi system when 13.5 lakh cusecs passed the Naraj delta head last week and the flood waters expected afresh will only prolong the flooding of the areas already deluged," the sources said.
The good news, however, had been that the rains in the river's upper and lower catchment areas had stopped, they said.
Water resources secretary, B K Patnaik said that inflow upto eight lakh cusecs was anticipated at the Hirakud dam. ''But we decided not to discharge more than 6.5 lakh cusecs so that the flow at Naraj does not exceed 10.5 lakh cusecs," he said. Bureau Report