By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, August 17, 2019: Odisha appears to have dodged yet another round of natural disaster with official saying that the threat of flood in the downstream of the Mahanadi river is no longer there as the water level has receded and rainfall abated.

Fear of flood had loomed large with the rise in water level in the Hirakud Dam due to incessant rain in upper catchments of the Mahanadi river, prompting the authorities to open 20 gates on Thursday to release excess water from the reservoir.

Hirakud dam was built on the Mahanadi River. While 20 of the 64 sluice gates of Hirakud dam had been opened on Thursday to release excess water, 10 of them were closed on Friday following substantial fall in the volume of water entering the reservoir and its level, Jena said.

The volume of inflow as well as outflow at the dam was recorded at 1,74,386 cusec at 6 PM, he said. The water level in the Mahanadi also stood at 24.82 metre at Naraj in Cuttack as against the danger level of 26.41 metre, while it was 8.45 metre at Alipangal, much below the danger level of 11.76 metre, it said.

Though several low-lying areas in Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara and Puri districts were submerged by water from small rivers, there is no flood-like situation, an official said adding water is now receding.

“However, we are fully alert and keeping a close watch on the situation. Patrolling along riverbanks has been carried out round the clock,” he said.

The state had on Wednesday alerted the administrations in 11 districts about a “medium” flood in Mahanadi River and its distributaries as a huge volume of flood water was expected to be discharged at Mundali.