VIJAYAWADA: Since last week of July, the flood level in Godavari has been swelling following huge inflows due to heavy rains in upper catchment areas of the river and its tributaries in Maharashtra, Telangana and Chhattisgarh.
Incidentally, the flood level was less than 6 lakh cusecs on Sunday, the lowest in the past 10 days, when the boat mishap occurred.On July 31, the flood discharge at Dowleswaram Barrage in Rajamahendravaram was 8.5 lakh cusecs. In subsequent days, it increased further and on August 3, the first flood warning was issued with the discharge level being 11.6 lakh cusecs.
It increased further on August 4 with the flood discharge of 13.58 lakh cusecs.The flood level decreased in the subsequent days, only to increase again from August 8. It touched 14.69 lakh cusecs mark on August 9 and the officials issued the second flood warning. On August 10, it reached 15.61 lakh cusecs. However, the flood level declined sharply the following day and on August 11, all flood warnings were withdrawn.
The flood level in Godavari continued to be around 6 lakh cusecs in the next two weeks. Though on August 21, RTGS sounded flood alert, the flood level was within normal.
Due to heavy rains in the upper catchment areas again in the last week of August, the inflows into Godavari started increasing. Again on September 9, the officials issued the first flood warning with the discharge being 11.03 lakh cusecs. As the discharge rose to 14.95 lakh cusecs, the second flood warning was issued.
It continued for two days and on September 11 evening with the decline in the water level to 9.27 lakh cusecs, all the flood warnings were withdrawn.On September 12, the water level declined further to 6.02 lakh cusecs and on September 13, the flood discharge from Dowleswaram Barrage increased marginally to 6.16 lakh cusecs.On September 14, it was 6.36 lakh cusecs. The flood level declined to 5.13 lakh cusecs at 4 pm on Sunday.