Flood waters receding fast in Krishna, Guntur districts

Flood water was on Thursday receding fast from several villages in Krishna and Guntur districts of Andhra Pradesh even as the government stepped up sanitation drive in the affected areas.

Several localities in Vijayawada city and some villages in Krishna and Guntur districts had flood water but it was receding, officials said. Water levels also came down in Rapalle town in Guntur district, which faced inundation following breaches to the Krishna Right Flood Bank, Vellaturu Branch Canal and Penumudi - Lankavanidibba, state minister M Venkataramana Rao said.

Rao, who was supervising flood relief works at Rapalle, said the flood water is likely to completely recede by the evening or tomorrow. The threat of fresh submergence of villages subsided as the outflow from Prakasam Barrage at Vijayawada came down to about 5.30 lakh cusecs against 10 lakh cusecs on Tuesday. The water level at the barrage was 14.5 feet, officials said.

The government has intensified 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.