Surging Godavari poses threat to several villages

Vijayawada: Surging Godavari flood waters continue to pose threat to five districts -- East Godavari, Eluru, Konaseema, Alluri Sitarama Raju and West Godavari districts. Several villages in the back waters of Godavari known as 'Lanka villages', are submerged and people have been shifted to relief camps using boats.

Interestingly, in one village, a marriage party used boats to go to bride's house. The marriage was fixed for July anticipating rains and flood in August. Chief Minister Y S jagan Mohan Reddy will conduct an aerial survey on Friday. The road connecting 11 villages under Pullangi Panchayat of Maredumilli Mandal have been cut off leading to traffic disruption. Complaints have been pouring in from the affected people that there was no proper supply of essential commodities. Even power supply was disrupted for the past one week and people are living in darkness.

People downstream of the Dowleswaram barrage are worried that their villages may be inundated if third warning was sounded past midnight as Godavari was reported to be rising at Bhadrachalam. About 18 lakh cusecs of water is coming from Bhadrachalam and upland areas. If this continues more than 80 villages in the Konaseema district are likely to be submerged. Already, road connectivity between several villages and mainland have been cut off due to inundation in the past three days.

More than 200 villages under the Polavaram were inundated due to flood in Sabari and Godavari rivers. Kunavaram, Chinturu, VR Puram, and Devipatnam mandals are facing severe problems.

According to sources, more than 100 villages may face inundation if the inflow crosses 18 lakh cusecs. It is estimated that 163 hectares of paddy nurseries and well-grown paddy crop in 87 hectares was submerged in rainwater.

Eluru district collector Prasanna Venkatesh on Thursday conducted a review meeting with the officials and assessed the situation. He instructed the officials to take measures for the safe evacuation of people living in the low-lying areas that will be affected by floods.