Polavaram officials sound alert as Sabari river in spate

The officials are gearing up for relief operations as inflow into the Sabari River is expected to touch ten lakh cusecs by Saturday evening at Chintoor in Polavaram district. On Friday, the inflow into the Sabari River at Chintoor was nearly 2.8 lakh cusecs.

The Sabari and Sileru rivers have been receiving inflows from their catchment areas due to heavy rain reported over the two days in Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

Polavaram District Collector K. Dinesh Kumar has announced that the people in the low-lying areas, including submergence areas of the Polavaram irrigation project, have been alerted about the rise of the Sabari River. “At least five tourism boats and 12 mechanised boats are kept ready at Kunavaram for the relief operations. The low-lying areas are being identified for relief operations based on the submergence reported in the 2022 Godavari floods,” Mr. Dinesh Kumar said.

The officials have also imposed a ban on tourism activities and suspended boating operations in the Godavari River. Entry into the tourism spots and waterfalls has been restricted in the wake of rains across the Polavaram district.

On the other hand, the displaced families of the Polavaram irrigation project of Koyaguru village on Friday staged a dharna in the waters of Sabari, seeking implementation of the Resettlement and Rehabilitation package. They staged the protest for more than four hours, and it was withdrawn upon a promise by Integrated Chintoor Tribal Development Agency Project Officer Subham Nokwal, who rushed to the Koyaguru village and scheduled talks on the R&R package next Monday. 

In East Godavari district, Minister for Tourism and Culture Kandula Durgesh inspected the paddy fields submerged by Yerra Kaluva, a small river that flows through Nidadavolu assembly constituency. “926 acres of paddy fields have been submerged in Nidadavolu assembly due to continuous rains reported over the past two days. All the affected paddy fields will be enumerated”, said Mr. Durgesh.