"The Kuibyshev and Nizhnekamsk reservoirs are prepared for spring flooding," Alexander Shadrikov said at a briefing at the Government House of the Republic of Tatarstan
Tatarstan's readiness for the passage of the spring flood was discussed today at a meeting of the Commission for the Prevention and Elimination of Emergency Situations and Ensuring Fire Safety of the Republic of Tatarstan. Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Alexander Shadrikov spoke about the work being carried out by the Interdepartmental Working Group (IWG) on regulating the operation of reservoirs of the Volga-Kama Cascade.
This year, three meetings of the IWG were held.
So, in February, discharge costs were reduced by 500 cubic meters/s in order to accumulate a sufficient supply of water by the spring special launch to the Lower Volga. Therefore, since the beginning of March, the reservoir level has been gradually rising.
The last meeting of the IWG was held on March 18.
The regime of the Kuibyshev reservoir is set to 4700 - 4900 cubic meters and according to the forecast by April 10, the level will rise to the level of 51.19 m BS. The most important thing, Alexander Shadrikov noted, is that the regime of the Kuibyshev reservoir is designed to ensure a high, without sharp fluctuations, level during the spawning period. The calculations also provide for forcing the reservoir level to 53.3 m BS during the fishing shelf period (from May 11 to June 5). If we talk about the upcoming flood, then according to the inflow forecast, the flood of 2022 will be close to the values of 2021.
The speaker also mentioned the new software package.
On behalf of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, the Ministry of Ecology is financing the development of the Gidrokaskad software package, which allows daily monitoring of changes in the level of reservoirs, as well as modeling their operating modes.
Thanks to the "Hydro Cascade", the Ministry conducts daily monitoring of the operating modes of the reservoirs of the Volga-Kama cascade. Access to the complex is provided by the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Republic of Tatarstan and Tatarstan NIRO.
First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Nigmatullin in his speech emphasized that the height of snow cover on the territory of Tatarstan at the end of February is much higher than the average annual values. Therefore, this year's flood may follow a tense scenario. Municipal districts have been asked to switch to high alert mode, and in case of flooding - immediately switch to emergency mode.
With the unfavorable development of the spring flood, more than 200 settlements and about 20 automobile bridges, a number of socially significant objects and objects of the economy of the Republic of Tatarstan can get into the flooding zone.