Water level gradually dipping in Nagavali River

Visakhapatnam: As the officials manning the barrages over Nagavali and Vamsadhara rivers ruled out any flood threat with the current inflow in the river, the people of the villages residing on the banks of heaved a sigh of relief on Wednesday. Heavy rain did not lash north Andhra on Wednesday contrary to the prediction of the IMD forecast, bringing much relief.

As many as 118 villages of the 10 mandals were prone to the Nagavali flash floods had the water flow in the Nagavali river reached 83,000 cusecs, according to the assessment of AP State Development Planning Society. The villages of the mandals—Amadalavalasa, Burja, Etcherla, Palakonda, Ponduru, Regidiamadalavala, Santhakaviti, Srikakulam, Vangara, Veeraghattam would have inundated due to Nagavali flash flood.

According to reports, 281mm rainfall recorded in the upper catchment areas of Vamsadhara river in Odisha till Tuesday night, highest in this season so far. The officials lifted 22 gates out of 24 was lifted up to 80 cm and started releasing about 40,000 cusecs of water while the inflow reported around 40 thousand as on Wednesday morning. Even though the water inflow did not recede much compared to Tuesday in river Vamsadhara, officials said there was no reason to panic as alert is sounded when the outflow is 1. 06 lakh cusec.

The district administration has asked the officials to keep tab on the river inflow and take preventive measures. The Agriculture Department would soon assess the extend of damaged caused to the crops due to rain.