Kakinada: Dowleswaram water level reaches 14.3 ft

Kakinada: River Godavari continues to receive heavy inflows from upstream area with Sabari still overflowing. Water levels at Dowleswaram reached 14.30 feet mark while 13.54 lakh cusecs of water was discharged into the sea by lifting 175 gates.

According to officials, the catchment areas of Pranahitha, Indravathi and Sabari received heavy inflows. Kothuru causeway has been inundated near Polavaram in West Godavari. Transport facilities to as many as 19 villages have been cut off because of the inundation of the causeway.

In Devipatnam, 32 villages have been affected by floods. Waters entered Gandiposamma temple while all the bathing ghats in the two Godavari districts remain closed. Nobody is being allowed into the river. People heading for any other place from Devipatnam are forced to use boats to go to plain areas. Officials have arranged 17 boats at Devipatnam to carry essential commodities and rescue people trapped in some of the low lying areas to safer places. According to officials, the water level was likely to rise further in the next some time.

Residents of flood-hit villages face more than one problems with floods in the Godavari on the one hand and more rains lashing the area on the other. Many of them had to move up higher areas since water entered many of the houses. They are staying in tents and other facilities to protect themselves temporarily. Families living in multi-storey  buildings and having the facility have moved to the terrace for their safety. Houses in the villages are in the dark at nights since there is no power with many of the electrical poles being covered with flood waters.

Electricity officials say they cannot restore power supply until the situation returns to normal in the villages. Residents of the villages reported that hundreds of cattle including cows and buffaloes are missing due to the floods. According to a section, some of their cattle have likely been washed away by the flood waters near Patiseema lift irrigation project.

The water has turned muddy because of the flooding and was not fit for consumption. Keeping this in mind, the ITDA officials have been supplying drinking water packets to villages.

People say that snakes have entered some of the houses with flood waters as there was no place for them. "We have been looking after our cattle like our children. But as the situation worsens, it becomes unmanageable and we would not know how things would urn out and what the plight of their cattle would be,'' said a woman from Veeravaram Lanka village.

Meanwhile, erosion of land across some of the islet villages has been reported while many trees including coconut have reportedly uprooted or even washe away by the flood waters. People of the villages say that coconut trees are their lifeline and livelihood. Because of the erosion, their lands and the coconut trees therein have been washed away by the water. Many of the fields, particular where paddy is planted, have turned to ponds. Farmers say they will again make transplantations.

Meanwhile the government personnel are in a tense mood as they are rendering their services to the flood hit villages for past one week. They said that they have not gone to their houses during night time also. The flood hit villagers have also showed sympathy on the low level officials for their hard work.