WATER WOES: People wading through floodwater with their belongings at Polavaram on Saturday.

ELURU: The rising water level in the Godavari due to heavy rain in the last three days has made tribals in Polavaram mandal panicky.

According to official information, the floodwaters of the Godavari inundated 25 tribal habitations in the mandal. A little over 3,800 tribal families were evacuated from their habitations and shifted to safer places. B.C. Colony with 1,200 houses at the Polavaram mandal headquarters town was under a sheet of water. Officials had to engage country boats to shift 1,500 people to the rehabilitation camps. Four camps were set up at the town and another two will be set up soon.

Zilla Parishad Chairperson K.V. Nageswara Rao, Collector Lav Agarwal and Superintendent of Police M. Jaganmohan Reddy were camping at Polavaram to oversee the rescue operations.

The Godavari is in spate. The level at Dhawaleswaram Barrage was recorded at 21 feet by Saturday evening. The irrigation authorities constituted patrolling teams to oversee the condition of the riverbund in the stretch between Kovvuru and Rajahmundry which was said to be quite weak, developing cracks.

Elections marred

Meanwhile, the floods marred the final phase of elections in several gram panchayats in Narsapur Revenue Division. District Panchayat Officer Nagarjunasagar said elections in Kanakayalanka, Pedalanka, Badava, Lakshmipalem, Koderu, Ayodhyalanka, Pedamallam and Yalamanchili were put off due to floodwaters entering the polling stations.

The district recorded 22.6 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours.

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