ANDHRA PRADESH: With no let-up in the floodwater level in the River Godavari, 44 villages in West Godavari and 87 villages in East Godavari were inundated on Monday. However, no casualties were reported from the twin Godavari districts.
The second flood warning issued on Monday morning is likely to continue till Tuesday afternoon as the river is getting heavy inflows at Dowleswaram Barrage. At 6 pm on Monday, the flood discharge was 14,95,174 cusecs, irrigation officials said.
Meanwhile, four crest gates of Srisailam reservoir were lifted up to a height of 10 feet with the increase in inflows from the upstream and floodwater was let out at the discharge rate of 1,11,564 cusecs through the spillway. The total outflow from the project was 2,17,238 cusecs.
Officials of Nagarjuna Sagar, Pulichintala and Prakasam Barrage are on high alert and constantly monitoring the situation to regulate the flood flow at the respective projects.
Speaking to TNIE, Irrigation Department Superintending Engineer S Krishna Rao said the flood discharge in Godavari river is expected to continue at the rate of 13 lakh to 15 lakh cusecs till Tuesday evening and thereafter it is likely to recede gradually.
All the precautionary measures have been taken to mitigate flood loss.
“The trend at Bhadrachalam and other points upstream of Godavari is on the decline as the heavy rains in the upper catchment areas of the river in Maharashtra have now ceased. The inflows are gradually declining in Indravati and Pranahita.
The impact of heavy rains will only be evident two or three days later at Dowleswaram Barrage. Till then, the first flood warning will be continued,” the SE said.
Along with 19 villages in Polavaram, another 19 villages in Velerupadu, four lanka villages in Achanta and two in Yelamanchili mandals of West Godavari district are inundated in floodwater.
On the other hand, 35 villages in Devipatnam, 19 in Chintoor and Kunavaram and another 36 villages in Konaseema region downstream of Dowleswaram Barrage are also flooded. Increasing floodwater in Godavari at Polavaram project has cut off road connectivity to several villages in agency areas of both Godavari districts.
Officials are unable to accurately measure the flood level at the cofferdam of the Polavaram project due to fluctuations in the level, while the flood level at the CWC measuring gauge shows a steady trend.
When the flood level started decreasing at Bhadrachalam, people in Polavaram region thought flood would also decrease at their place, but it had only increased. The floodwater inundated roads leading to Gajulagondi village, entered the police checkpost near Kadamma bridge, where it is flowing over the bridge. Floodwater also entered houses in Kothuru, Madapuram, Kondrukota, Wadapalli and Tellavaram villages.
People suffering from lack of electricity, drinking water and depleted food stocks, blamed the officials for their predicament. Skirting around the question of whether the flood alert was sounded at the right time, the officials said they had taken every measure to mitigate loss.
“Special officers have been appointed for all the 44 flood-affected villages. Already 12 boats have been engaged in relief works. Food has been prepared for the flood victims,” said Joint Collector Venugopal Reddy.
East Godavari District Collector D Muralidhar Reddy, directed the officials to be prepared to shift the people from submerged villages if the flood level increases further.
The fresh floods have caused worry to farmers who are not in a position to bear the crop loss for the second consecutive season. Meanwhile, rescue and relief teams have been deployed in agency areas of East Godavari. A total of 167 SDRF, 90 fire service and 30 NDRF personnel have been deployed with boats, life jackets and other material for relief and rescue operations.
4 Srisailam gates lifted
With increasing inflows into Tungabhadra and Krishna rivers, irrigation officials have lifted four crest gates of Srisailam reservoir up to a height of 10 feet and they are contemplating to lift two more gates to let the floodwater at the discharge rate of 50,000 cusecs, in addition to the current discharge at the rate of 1.11 lakh cusecs.
The water level in the project reached 884.6 ft against the full reservoir level of 885 ft. With the possibility of increasing inflows, the officials at Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala are getting ready to regulate the flood by releasing floodwater downstream.
Prakasam Barrage officials in Vijayawada have also been alerted.
Flood discharge
14,95,174 cusecs
Dowleswaram Barrage (6 pm)
2,72,928 cusecs
Srisailam
53,452 cusecs
Nagarjuna Sagar
47,853 cusecs
Pulichintala
34,088 cusecs