Polavaram backwaters: Threat looms large for TS

Now that the Polavaram project has come up downstream, the backwater effect is adding more to the grave threat.

Hyderabad: The onset of monsoon has brought in the threat of floods for towns and villages all along the river banks of Godavari in the State. It is more so with the temple town of Bhadrachalam.

However, the State’s efforts to get the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to help by minimising the impact of the Polavaram project backwaters are yet to bear fruit, even as the monsoon is all set to gain strength in the State.

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Despite all out efforts made by the administration to outwit the challenges posed when the river is in spate, the floods wreak havoc and it takes years for the victims to overcome the impact of the monsoon mayhem. People in Bhadrachalam have been for long been paying a high price due to floods.

Now that the Polavaram project has come up downstream, the backwater effect is adding more to the grave threat.

Though a flood protection bank has been put up covering the vulnerable points around the town, it may not be of any big help in the event of extreme weather events such as sudden downpours.

The Godavari river at Bhadrachalam experienced severe flooding on July 15, 2022. Over 20,000 people from as many as 62 villages were evacuated and shifted to 77 relief camps set up in Bhadrachalam town.

The flood level reached 71 feet causing devastation in the area. The impact was the grim reminder of the highest ever flood level of 75.6 feet recorded in 1986.

In the backdrop of the extreme weather events reported at different places in the State and elsewhere, the State has often been writing to the Polavaram project authority and the Central Water Commission (CWC) to ensure that free passage of the flood flow at Polavaram by keeping open all its 48 gates fully open during heavy floodsin Godavari.

The impact of such flood would be devastating on the revenue mandals of Bhadracahalam, Burgumpadu and Palvancha. The State government has been mounting pressure on the CWC and the Polavaram project authority for mapping the areas being impacted by flood in Godavari year after year by taking up a joint survey.

Though Andhra Pradesh had given its green signal for such an exercise, this has not materialised so far. Other riparian States such as Chhattisgarh and Odisha also raised several concerns, but they were yet to be addressed.

The Supreme Court’s directions to the CWC and the PPA to address the concerns of the neighbouring States too did not yield any results.

It did not evoke any response from PPA. Local streams were being choked in the impact of the backwaters resulting in drainage problems as well.

The PPA had been contending that the impact of the Polavaram dam on Bhadrachalam’s areas was minimal. Quoting technical studies, officials said the floods level out marginally by 20 cm, even if the flood discharge was in the order of 50 lakh cusecs.