Flooding eases, rain now comes into focus in Telangana

HYDERABAD: Telangana was headed towards a rare respite on Saturday night as the water level of the Godavari that was continuously spiking over the past week — reaching 71 feet on Friday night — fell to 67.7 feet as of 9 pm.

Tens of thousands living along the course of river in Bhadrachalam were on tenterhooks for past few days, amid evacuations of lowlying areas and incidents of rescues due to flooding. Officials cited a dip in water inflows for the danger easing up, saying that the situation would improve further if rains recede for the next few days in the catchment areas of Telangana and Maharashtra.

So far, around 110 villages in the Bhadradri-Kothagudem district have been marooned, with all access cut off because of the floods. In Bhadrachalam alone, nearly 5,000 people were evacuated to relief camps in the town and 4,500 people were moved to similar camps in Charla mandal. Further, 2,700 people were moved to camps in Dummagudem, while another 4,300 were in camps at Burgampahad mandals.

However, parts of the state continue to feel the aftereffects of heavy rains, with crops across lakhs of acres continuing to languish. At the Kadem dam in Nirmal, heavy pounding has left counter-weights and cables damaged, with two of the 18 sluice gates turning unmanageable. With one gate already dysfunctional over the past three years, the situation might worse if heavy rains make a dramatic comeback. Also, there has been no official word on the status of submerged pump houses, at Annaram and Kannepalli, of the Kaleshwaram irrigation project, where 25 heavy-duty or ‘Bahubali’ pumps went underwater as a result of water backflow at the Medigadda barrage.

Andhra Pradesh irrigation and revenue department continued to stay on high alert, as the Godavari continued to receive inflows of 25.3 lakh cusecs. With no immediate let-up in sight, officials have been busy attempting to strengthen the embankments of the river in the two Godavari districts.