After more than one month of pumping Godavari water from Kaleswaram, the water stored at Mallannasagar has reached 10 tmcft by Friday.
The irrigation officials are planning to run the pumps on Saturday also and it is expected that the water level in the reservoir would reach 10.5 tmcft water, which would be minimum draw level.
The pumping of water to Mallannasagar commenced on August 22 at 3 a.m. after pooja was performed by Engineer- in-Chief B. Hari Ram along with Superintendent Engineer T. Venu and others.
As the water level steadily started rising in the reservoir, many of the oustees have been posting the photos of their villages getting submerged in the Godavari water. Many have expressed their agony at losing their village and identity.
“Whenever we are passing on the bund of Mallannasagar, the feeling of missing our villages hurts us deep and at times tears roll down. Our ancestors were born here, lived their lives here and passed away here only. We had our childhood and education here. Some of us even performed marriages of our chilldren and grandchildren in these villages. Now we are seeing the Godavari water slowly swallowing our villages and it is painful,” Kasha Chandu, an oustee of Vemulaghat village in Toguta mandal, one of the submerged villages, told The Hindu.
Currently all of them are living in the temporary accommodation provided by the authorities as some of them asked for only plots with an intention to construct houses on their own. Those who opted for houses were allotted houses.
Almost all the villages are now submerged in the rising waters of Mallannasagar, while parts of Erravalli and Pallepahad are still clearly visible.
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