Godavari crosses 43 feet level at Bhadrachalam, first warning issued

Kothagudem: First warning has been issued as water level in river Godavari reached 43 feet at Bhadrachalam in Kothagudem district on Tuesday. The water which has been rising since Monday afternoon hours with incessant rains in the upper catchment area of the river and with increased inflows from its tributaries, reached the first warning level […]

Kothagudem: First warning has been issued as water level in river Godavari reached 43 feet at Bhadrachalam in Kothagudem district on Tuesday. The water which has been rising since Monday afternoon hours with incessant rains in the upper catchment area of the river and with increased inflows from its tributaries, reached the first warning level at 4.10 pm. The water level at 5 pm was 43.50 feet with a discharge of 9.55 lakh cusecs.

District Collector Anudeep Durishetty in a statement said that due to inflows into the river from Godavari tributaries, Pranahita and Indravati rivers, the water level at Bhadrachalam might reach 55 feet by Tuesday night. He advised the residents on the banks of the river to be cautious. Fishermen should not go fishing in the river and cattle have to be kept at home. As many streams were overflowing in the district, the public should avoid crossing such streams.

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The Collector also told the district and mandal level officials to be alert and monitor the flood situation from time to time. The official machinery has to be ready to carry out relief measures in case of emergency. It might be recalled that Godavari crossed the first warning level for the first time in this season on July 10 and crossed the third warning level on July 11. On July 15 the water level in the river crossed the 70 feet mark for the third time in the past 36 years at Bhadrachalam.

And on July 16 it flowed at 71.30 feet at Bhadrachalam causing widespread damage by inundating several villages in Aswapuram, Bhadrachalam, Cherla, Dummugudem and Manugur mandals forcing the residents to move to rehabilitation centres.

Meanwhile, officials have lifted nine gates of Taliperu medium irrigation project in Cherla mandal to discharge 30, 184 cusecs of excess water downstream.