Meghadrigedda on death bed

Visakhapatnam: The main drinking water source for Visakhapatnam - Meghadrigedda - is fast drying up due to sheer lack of maintenance and supervision.

The water that flows through Naravagedda canal, the main source of Meghadrigedda, is highly polluted with solid and liquid waste being dumped by hospitals, caterers and meat shop owners. For the last three decades, the Irrigation department has not been taking any steps to cleanse Naravagedda to ensure free flow of water into Meghadrigedda. 

The Roads and Building department constructed a bridge on Naravagedda between Vepagunta and Pinagadi in 1988, taking into consideration the width of canal as 96.57 metres.

During the last three decades, no steps were taken to cleanse the Naravagedda. As there were no maintenance works and supervision, the width has shrunk with a lot of waste being dumped into it. Now it is like a ribbon of five metres width.

Though the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) is using the water, it is not taking any steps to deepen and widen Naravagedda, maintaining that it is the Irrigation department’s duty to desilt the canal. Though the department is admitting that the canal has been blocked, they have not cleansed it as desilting of Naravagedda was never done in the past.

"Earlier, flood waters used to reach Meghadrigedda through Naravagedda. We used to drink the water directly. But, now it has shrunk. The people at nights are dumping waste. Unless officials take immediate steps, this drinking water source will dry up completely," a farmer Bheesetty Apparao in Pinagadi, a village near the gedda, said.

After The Hans India brought the deplorable state of the Naravagedda to the notice of the irrigation department, its engineers rushed to the canal. After their visit, Irrigation Superintending Engineer P Sasibhushan Rao admitted that desilting needs to be done.

“I have visited the Naravagedda and it needs desilting. But desilting of the water bodies is a big issue and it is not in my purview. However, pollution of water is a serious issue and I will take it up with Municipal Corporation. We will clear the garbage from Naravagedda," Sasibhushan Rao said.