90 Villages Marooned in Konaseema

“We are worried about a spread of the water borne diseases,” the villagers said.

Some 89 villages were marooned but floodwaters did not enter the houses. The villages have no access to the main roads and are using boats to move around the area.

Some 163 personnel of the SDRF and NDRF were engaged in relief works like supplying essential commodities to the affected people.

Habitations like Ganti Pedapudi lanka, Arigelavari peta, Vudimudi lanka, Anagalanka, Lanka of Thanelanka and other islet villages have been submerged.

The Konaseema district collector Mahesh Kumar said 11 villages in four mandals were affected by the floods in the district and seven rehabilitation centres were arranged for the victims. Some 15 families have come to the relief camps, while 2,082 food packets, 38,000 drinking water packets, 2540 water cans and essential commodities have been distributed to them.

A total of 66 boats have been arranged for the marooned villages. “There is no loss of human lives due to the floods in the district,” he said.

He said proposals have been sent for start of works to strengthen the bunds and undertake other repairs to canals, head works etc. A sum of `4.38 lakh has been proposed as the cost for covering breaches to drainages in Allavaram mandal, `4.90 lakh for strengthening the left bund at Odalarevu village, `4.50 lakh for the Sakurru and Upper Koushika dragiange, `4.94 lakh to Gorinka drainage, `12.88 crore to curb the leakages to Suez near Bhachu Labanda and Vadavobdi Kadali villages, 1.30 crore for strengthening the Vynatheya left bund at Thondavaram and Vakalagaruvu villages, `80 lakh for replacement works of the Gopayalanka outfall canal, `53 crore for the left bund of Gowthami river and `45 crore for the right bund of Gowthami river at Kundaleswaram and also funds for several branch canal development works.

While the Godavari floodwaters were receding at Bhadrachalam, there was huge water-logging in several villages in Kukkunuru and VR Puram mandals in Eluru district. The roads were blocked due to the floods in seven places in VR Puram mandal like Chintaregipalli to Kannayigudem, Musthivarigudem to AV Gudem, Ramavaram to Ramavarappadu, Thotapalli to Seethampeta, Ippuru to Pochavaram, Vaddigudem to Vaddigudem Colony and Seethampeta to Sriramagiri.

There was no traffic to and from the villages as the roads were submerged by the floodwaters.

The villagers said they have been evacuated from their villages three times this year due to the heavy rains and the floods. They requested the government to settle their R&R packages and shift them to rehabilitation colonies.

Eluru RDO Khajavali said a special app has been created to record the details of losses due to the floods in the district. Officials should upload the information in the app. He inspected the app recording at Appanaveedu secretariat in Pedapadu mandal on Thursday.