RAJAMAHENDRAVARAM/GUNTUR: Flood in river Godavari rose steadily on Wednesday again after showing a falling trend over the last two days, following heavy rains in the upper catchment areas. Consequently, the instant inflow and outflow at Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowleswaram near Rajamahendravaram has risen to 15 lakh cusecs (cubic foot of water flow per second).
The water level at the barrage crossed 15.10 feet. If the water level crosses 17.75 feet, a third flood warning will be issued, said Flood conservator Kasi Visweswara Rao. This is the third time that a second flood warning has been issued in the past 45 days.
At Bhadrachalam in neighbouring Telangana, the flood in Godavari was recorded at about 15 lakh cusecs, crossing the third danger mark at a level of 54.5 feet. The flood water will flow down into the Cotton Barrage.
The State Disaster Management Authority said the second warning signal remained in place at the Cotton Barrage even as three teams each of the NDRF and the SDRF have been positioned in the flood-hit districts of Alluri Sitarama Raju, B R Ambedkar Konaseema and Eluru for relief operations.
“People along the course of the river have to be on alert till the flood recedes,” SDMA Managing Director B R Ambedkar said in a release. Five mandals — Chintur, VR Puram, Kunavaram, Yetapaka and Devipatnam — in ASR district, Velerupadu, Kukkunur and Polavaram mandals in Eluru district, and 135 island villages in Konaseema, West Godavari and East Godavari districts have been affected by the flood.
As many as 215 villages in tribal areas were submerged or cut off from the mainland. Over 20,000 families have been shifted to relief camps. Meanwhile, in river Krishna, the discharge from Srisailam reservoir crossed 3.95 lakh cusecs on Wednesday.
Almost the same quantity of floodwater was being released from Nagarjuna Sagar dam downstream, the AP Water Resources Information Management System data showed. Officials of Nagarjuna Sagar lifted all 26 crest gates of the project. Nagarjuna Sagar dam has been receiving a total inflow of 4.37 lakh cusecs from the Srisailam project, raising the water level in the project to 580.02 feet.
The dam has 301 TMC of water at present as against its total water storage capacity of 312 TMC. At Dr K L Rao Sagar Pulichintala below Nagarjuna Sagar, the inflow was recorded at 3.75 lakh cusecs and outflow 3.56 lakh cusecs.At Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada further down, a discharge of 2.93 lakh cusecs has been recorded.