Limbayat relieved from receding water

Surat: With rains taking a break in Surat and Tapi districts in the last 12 hours on Saturday, flood waters receded in affected areas of Limbayat after water levels at Mithi and Bhedwad creeks also subsided, bringing much relief to the area’s residents.
Official sources in Limbayat zone said that flood waters in Pandesara, Bhestan, Limbayat and Parvat Patiya receded after water levels in Mithi khadi decreased to 7.4 metres from 7.9 metres on Saturday. Similarly, Bhedwad khadi’s level too decreased from 8.2m to 6.7m with no rainfall in the catchment areas.
However, certain low-lying areas are still flooded and zone officials will place de-watering pumps to remove the stagnated flood waters.
Bhairav Desai, executive engineer of Limbayat zone told TOI, “The flood waters have receded with the water levels in both the creeks coming down to below danger levels. We have still kept the de-watering pumps in the affected areas, anticipating the water levels may increase again due to rains in catchment areas.”
Desai further said that a team of 60 safai kamdars and health workers have been deployed in areas where flood waters have receded for cleaning and spraying of insecticides. These areas include Magob, Parvat Patiya, Mithi Khadi, Bhestan etc where along with Gulfer drain cleaning machines, sewer jetting machines and eight tractors will also be utilized to clean muck and sludge. About 35 metric tonnes of and other debris were removed from the affected areas till now.
Meanwhile, inflow of water into Ukai reservoir increased from 94,000 cusecs to 1.32 lakh cusecs within two hours between 2pm and 4pm on Saturday. The dam authorities, however, have maintained the discharge of water at 1.24 lakh cusecs with water levels at the dam touching 332.36 feet, which is well below the rule level of 335 feet.