Sambalpur: Senior officials of the Water Resources Departments of Odisha and their Chhattisgarh counterparts discussed at Raipur on ways to manage Mahanadi River water to facilitate irrigation in the riparian states, Tuesday.
According to sources, the discussion centred on safety of the Hirakud Dam, restrictions on the flow of silt and flood water control. Odisha also asked Chhattisgarh to inform 48 hours before releasing water downstream.
The officials of Odisha demanded regular information on water level in the river and insisted on conservation of rain water at dams upstream of Mahanadi.
As there is rain shortage upstream of Mahanadi, consensus was arrived at on proper conservation of water. The water level in Hirakud Dam has drastically gone down this year and it touched 601.81 ft Tuesday.
Moreover, 9561 cusecs of water is entering the reservoir and 3725 cusecs of water is being released from it. About 3,555 cusecs is released into canals for agricultural purposes.
A similar meeting was held last year at Burla. State Irrigation Department Chief Engineer Akshaya Kumar Banerjee, Burla, Chief Engineer Sunil Kumar Naik, Chief Dam Safety Officer Purna Chandra Sahoo, Dam Safety Director Akshaya Kumar Das and Central Water Commissioner Amrish Pal Singh attended the meeting.
The Chhattisgarh counterparts who attended the meeting included Irrigation Department Chief Engineer Jayant Pawar, Mahanadi Project Chief Engineer KS Dhruba, Mahanadi-Godavari basin Chief Engineer BC Jain and Hasdeo Bango Project Chief Engineer AK Sanwar.
PNN