First flood warning at Dowleswaram Barrage withdrawn

VIJAYAWADA/KAKINADA: As water levels in Godavari River have started receding, water resources officials have withdrawn the first flood warning level of 11.75 ft with a discharge of 10 lakh cusecs from Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at 4 am on Monday.

The water level at the barrage touched 11.80 ft at 8 pm on Sunday with a discharge of 10.11 lakh cusecs from the barrage and the same level continued for several hours. However, when it started receding, the authorities withdrew the first warning level. At 9 pm, the water level was recorded at 9.80 ft with a discharge of 7.48 lakh. This is expected to recede further as water level at Bhadrachalam was recorded at 32.20 ft around the same time.

Authorities in the two Godavari districts heaved a sigh of relief as the floods in the river along its course caused no major trouble to the people living in low-lying areas and in islands.

On the other hand, people living in flood-hit villages are facing trouble from poisonous snakes and insects. The road connectivity is yet to be restored because flood water has not receded at Kothuru causeway.

West Godavari collector Karthikeya Misra visited Korda village in Velerupadu mandal and Koruturu village in Polavaram mandal and interacted with the flood-hit people. He inquired about the implementation of R and R package for Polavaram project affected people. When people sought solar lamps, he assured to provide them.

At P. Gannavaram mandal, people living in islets on the river are moving around in boats. Meanwhile, the sea turned rough in Uppalaguptam mandal in East Godavari and surged towards habitation causing concern to the residents.With regard to Krishna River, water resources officials are discharging 48,331 cusecs of water downstream into the sea by lifting gates at Prakasam barrage as there was inflow of 56,857 cusecs and the reservoir was filled to the brim with a storage capacity of 3.07 tmc ft of water.