Rains lash Telangana; Water level in Godavari on the rise; Officials on alert

The water level in river Godavari at Bhadrachalam in Kothagudem has been increasing steadily and reached 35.10 feet at 5 pm with a discharge of 5,96,805 cusecs of floodwater on Saturday.

Kothagudem: Incessant rains continued to lash several parts of the State on Saturday, resulting in steady inflows into different irrigation projects and overflowing rivulets at several places.

Mallapur in Jagtial recorded the highest rainfall of the day at 78.3 mm till 7 pm, while Sarvaipet in Jayashankar Bhupalpally received 76.5 mm. Due to the rains, the Muthadivagu project at Adilabad was getting inflows and the water level increased to 275.85 metres. Another two metres would lead to full capacity storage in the project, according to reports. Similarly, with heavy rains lashing upstream, the Jurala project in the district received steady inflows of nearly 71,950 cusecs since last night. Irrigation department officials lifted seven gates and released about 87,300 cusecs of water downstream towards Srisailam. The storage capacity of Jurala project is 9.65 tmcft and the current storage is nearly 7.5 tmcft. Farmers in the River Krishna basin of Jogulamba Gadwal, Narayanpet and other areas were put on alert with inflows into the river. Three gates of the Kaddam Project in erstwhile Adilabad too were lifted to discharge surplus water downstream.

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Meanwhile, the water level in river Godavari at Bhadrachalam in Kothagudem has been increasing steadily and reached 35.10 feet at 5 pm with a discharge of 5,96,805 cusecs of floodwater on Saturday. Floodwaters have been entering the river due to heavy rains in the upper catchment area in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh as well as in Kothagudem district. According to officials, in the last 24 hours, 81,572 cusecs of excess water were released downstream from the Taliperu project. At 5 am, 25 gates of Taliperu project in Cherla mandal were opened for free flow discharging of 1,43,248 cusecs of excess water. The project inflow was 1,47,800 cusecs. Water level in Godavari was expected to reach 41 feet by Sunday. The first warning level is 43 feet.

Coal production in the opencast mines of Singareni was also hit due to the rains over the last two days. Officials said about 80 percent of the coal production in the various opencast mines of the company had come to a standstill.

In Kothagudem, District Collector Jithesh V Patil and SP B Rohith Raju advised people living in low lying areas to be alert and not to venture unless it was an emergency. The Collector informed that a control room was set up at Kothagudem collectorate and asked the public to give information through message or video to 08744-241950 or WhatsApp number 9392919743 in case of any emergency. Similar alerts were issued by the district administration in several other districts on Saturday.

Irrigation and revenue officials, in Kothagudem particularly, were asked to keep sand bags ready at all projects and to keep boats available. Collector Patil said every gram panchayat secretary would be given a mike and a torch light. Two persons in every village were to be trained to share location and flood related information over mobile phones.

Earlier in the day, Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy sounded a high alert to irrigation officials in view of the heavy to very heavy rain forecast in the State and increased water discharges expected from different projects posing flood risk. Chief engineers in charge of operations were asked not to leave their headquarters without prior permission. Heavy flooding in the forest stream of Aswaraopet mandal in Bhadradri Kothagudem district had resulted in a major breach to the Peddavagu project resulting in extensive loss two days ago. In the backdrop of the incident, he wanted all field engineers, superintending engines, executive engineers, deputy executive engineers, AEEs and AEs to be available at the headquarters for emergency response.

He directed them to monitor the hourly inflows into minor irrigation tanks, major and medium Irrigation projects, and ensure that the gates were operated as per the guidelines. Officials were asked to ensure release of flood water as per standard operating protocols and issue advance warning to downstream habitations with help of Collectors and Superintendents of Police in the districts.