Kolleru (Krishna ), Aug. 20: For the past two weeks, people of 26 island villages on the Kolleru lake have remained stranded in the floodwaters. They do not have basic amenities like power, potable drinking water, ration and kerosene. The recent rains followed by the swelling floodwaters have disconnected these villages from the outside world forcing them to stay in knee deep waters. The situation has forced villagers to depend on launches, country boats and steamers to come out of their homes. At home, they spend the night under the darkness as they have no kerosene to light lamps. Their rice stocks are also running out. The government had demolished the aqua and fish ponds in Kolleru lake two years ago. As a result, several thousand villagers have been left jobless. The only outlet drain, Upputeru, is also in a very bad condition. The villagers fear that poor sanitation conditions could lead to the outbreak of epidemic in the coming days if the situation does not improve. Neither the public representatives nor officials have visited the villages for over 10 days. Just two days ago, some officials visited the villages and distributed low quality rice. Pandaripalligudem, Kollikota, Srungavarappadu, Tummallapadu and Kottada are some of the worst-affected villages reeling under the floodwaters. Ganga Ratnam and Ganga Jayamma, two villagers from Pandaripallegudem, alleged that the villagers have no connection with the outside world for many days now. Most of the villagers blamed that poor outlet of Kolleru water as the reason for their plight. Mr K. Nagaraju, a villager from Tummallapadu, said the floodwaters flowing towards Upputeru was moving very slowly causing water stagnation in Kolleru. He alleged that officials have neglected desiltation of drains. Ex MLC Mr T. Vithal Rao said unless the government takes measures for the outflow of floodwaters, the island villages would face hardships in future. TD MLA Ms Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao along with the party cadre visited the island villages on Wednesday and spoke to the victims. The villagers narrated their woes to the MLA and criticized the Congress government for ignoring their problems.