Bhubaneswar: The Chhattisgarh Government has built around 516 check dams in the upper catchment areas of Mahanadi river to obstruct flow of water from the river to Hirakud reservoir.
This has been informed by Water Resources Minister Raghunandan Das in the Assembly.
Replying to a question, the Minister said that the neighboring State has built around 516 barrages to check inflow of Mahanadi river water into Hirakud dam. The inflow of water has considerably dropped during non-monsoon season due to construction of barrages by Chhattisgarh, he added.
While Hirakud reservoir has a requirement of 2 million acre feet water during non-monsoon period, the water inflow dropped by around 4 per cent from 1991-21 to 2004-05 and by 37 % from 2005-06 to 2015-16, the Minister said.
In 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, flow of water during non-monsoon period reduced by 65 %, 61 %, 57% and 3 %, respectively. Similarly, in 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 there has been an average drop in non-monsoon water inflow of 65%, 61%, 57% and 3% respectively, he added.