-- Samir Umarye Keri: With the Anjunem dam in Sattari and Amthane dam in Bicholim attaining their maximum water levels, the water resource department released the excess water on Wednesday. The catchment areas of both these dams are also receiving the required amount of rainfall.
Anjunem dam at Keri-Sattari is a medium-scale irrigation project located at the upstream end of a 1.5 km long gorge of the Costinadi. It attained 90.09m of water on Wednesday, so executive engineer Dnyaneshwar Salelkar decided to release the excess water. He told TOI, "All four gates have been opened 2cm each for discharging a total of 3 cubic metre of water. We released the excess water in the morning as it was low tide. Releasing of water will be controlled in the late evening during the high tide starting at 8.05pm. We have already posted trained and skilled staff at the dam to deal with the situation." Anjunem dam has an area of 2.325sq km of reservoir with a total storage capacity of 4,483 hectare metre (hams). Amthane is a minor irrigation dam with an area of 0.7sq km reservoir and has a capacity of 585 hams. As the Amthane dam was overflowing and had attained 50.05m, water was released on Wednesday morning. Officials of WRD have already alerted villagers about the releasing of excess water from both these dams. As the Chorla Ghat border areas from Maharashtra and Karnataka are currently receiving continuous heavy rains, the Valvonti and the Bicholim rivers are overflowing and there is a possibility of flooding in Bicholim and Sakhali towns. Mamalatdar of Bicholim Gurudas Desai has already instructed the disaster management cell to remain alert.(toi)
