The water level in the Godavari river was rising steadily with an inflow of nearly 10,000 cusecs of water from Bhadrachalam and also due to the self-yield following rainfall in its catchment areas. As the flood season for Godavari begins in July and continues up to October, the water resources department has initiated necessary steps like identification of weak flood banks towards its right and left sides from Polavaram to downstream, in the course of the river until it merges into the sea at four places - Yanam, Coringa of Kakinada, Antarvedi, and Narasapuram, by forming into tributaries. The authorities recently held a preparatory meeting to get feedback from the engineers in charge of the flood banks in their respective jurisdictions, on the status of these to find out whether they are weak and require any work to strengthen them.
Accordingly, flood relief materials like sandbags, casuarina stumps, etc will be procured. Officials say the meeting was held recently and they are in the process of preparing the flood manual and dealing with any crisis like heavy flood situations and ways to avoid a breach of the bunds by keeping a close watch on them. They are also alerting the local revenue authorities for evacuation of those living in vulnerable areas including villages and islets.
The standard protocol, while dealing with the flood situation in the Godavari River is that, if the quantum of water that gets discharged from Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowleswaram is to be of .
