Water level constant at Bhadradri

Bhadrachalam: The water level in River Godavari at Bhadrachalam remained the same since Thursday. The variation in the water level was only 0.10 feet.

“The water level at 5 pm on Thursday was 52.2 feet and it was 52.3 feet at 5 pm on Friday. The water level remained below the third warning level of 53 feet and higher than the second warning of 48 feet. Nearly 13.98 lakh cusecs of water is flowing through Bhadrachalam,” officials said.

The steady level is a strange phenomenon, but the reason is the overflowing of the 200km stretch of Sabari river, which will join Godavari at Kunavaram. The distance between Bhadrachalm and Kunavaram is  35km. Sabari river originates in Sinkaram hill range in Koraput district of Odisha, officials noted.

“The water of Sabari has more density than the Godavari and it will have clay and sand. More than two lakh cusecs of water will be coming from Sabari river,” they said.

Irrigation official Rajsuhas said, “The flood waters of Sabari river slowed the flow of Godavari at Bhadrachalam. The width of the Sabari at Kunavaram is very less and the force of floodwater there is high. The Sabari water pushes back the floodwaters of Godavari on the Bhadrachalam side and it will slow the flow there.”

The same situation is likely to continue till Saturday. The flow of floodwaters over the roads at five locations continued on Friday too. The administration was closely watching the flood situation.

Meanwhile, the flood flows from Indravati and Pranahita continued. The rainfall was heavy in the catchment areas of the two tributaries of Godavari.