Vijayawada: Kondaveeti vaagu becomes focal point again

Vijayawada: The Kondaveeti vaagu (stream) is once again becomes a hot topic in the political circles and also among the people. The 47 km length vaagu flows through AP's capital Amaravati. Minister for Municipal Administration Botcha Satyanarayana recently gave statement explaining hurdles for continuation of Amaravati as capital. Now, the YSR Congress MP P Vijayasai Reddy, in his tweet, said that the capital area has flood threat from Kondaveeti vaagu. The residents of capital location villages raised objections to the tweet and said that the villages were never submerged with the flood in the last 100 years.

Indeed, in the past, the state government overcame the objections including legal challenges and got permissions. It may be noted that several social activists challenged the capital construction in the location by highlighting flood threat from Kondaveeti vaagu, at National Green Tribunal .

At the time, the State government gave clarification to NGT as the Krishna river received 11 lakh cusecs as highest record flood during the last 100 years. The capital location area did not face any problem except a breach at Oleru near to Repalle town which is downstream of Prakasam Barrage in Guntur district.

The State government also explored possibilities to tackle Kondaveeti vaagu by taking suggestions from experts of the Netherlands along with the Irrigation department.

Kondaveeti vaagu, which is a small stream, start from Pericherla hills in Guntur district and joins into Krishna River after passing 47 kilometers' distance. It caused inundation threat at two points in the stretch due to the poor water management system in the past.

As per the Irrigation department records, Kondaveeti vaagu's major flood is 16,000 cusecs. The ayacut in the surroundings of Neerukonda village face inundation threat when flood water flows with such level. The river bunds of Krishna can withstand up to 12 lakh cusecs of water.

The 16,000 cusecs could be regulated easily and it is not a big problem after the construction of Kondaveeti vaagu lift irrigation scheme at Undavalli. A senior official of Water Resources department on condition of anonymity said that the entire area of Kondaveeti vaagu also could be expanded and the water could be shifted to the Krishna river through lift irrigation scheme.

Another senior engineer of the Water Resources Department in Guntur district said that Kondaveeti vaagu's flood capacity is only from 8000 cusecs to 16,000 cusecs as per the flood records in the last 100 years. It could be regulated easily with the presently available lift irrigation scheme, he said.

Farmers leader Bezwada Narendra said that he never witnessed submerge of the capital location villages from Kondaveeti vaagu in his 55 years experience. The government should not forget the sacrifices of farmers who gave lands for AP's capital, he said.