Flood Waters Ebbing in Krishna, Guntur Districts

Flood waters are swiftly ebbing from many villages in Krishna and Guntur districts of Andhra Pradesh as government intensified sanitation drive in the affected areas.

Officials said that a number of localities situated in Vijaywada city and some villages in Krishna and Guntur districts still had flood waters which are receding speedily. Also, water level in Rapalle town in Guntur district, too, had come down.

The town had faced flooding in the wake of breaches to the Krishna Right Flood Bank, Vellaturu Branch Canal and Penumudi Lankavanidibba, said state minister M Venkataramana Rao.

According to Rao, who is supervising the relief works at Rapalle, the flood water is expected to ebb completely by the evening or tomorrow.

As the outlflow from Prakasam Barrage at Vijaywada receded to nearly 5.30 lakh cusecs against 10 lakh cusecs, the threat of fresh submergence of villages too weakened.

Officials said that the water level at the barrage was 14.5 feet. The government has beefed up relief and sanitation works in flood-hit Mahaboobnagar, Kurnool, and Krishna districts.

The administration has launched a massive sanitation drive in Kurnool town by employing about 2,000 staff including officers and personnel. About 20 earth moving machines and large number of other vehicles like tractors were being used to clear the slush and mud which accumulated there.

The government also started distributing 60,000 medical kits, containing chlorine tablets, soaps and phenyl to protect people from infectious diseases.