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Andhra Pradesh
Erosion threat to riverside habitations
450 families deprived of their ancestral place in view of the threat posed by the engulfing river
Quirk of nature: The changing course of Godavari causing instability to many a native
SIDDHANTAM (WEST GODAVARI DISTRICT): The drifting of the Godavari from its original course towards the western side has sent the inhabitants of several riverside villages in the West Godavari district into jitters.
Dongaravipalem, situated close to the riverbanks has been displaced and relocated to a safe place near Siddhantam by the district administration a decade-and-a-half ago, depriving some 450 families of their ancestral place in view of the threat posed by the engulfing river.
Similar is the case with 30 habitations abutting the riverbanks on the western side from Siddhantam to Biyyaputippa, where people spend sleepless nights due to the threat of floods caused by erosion of the banks as a result of the drifting river.
According to Krishna Rao, Divisional Engineer, Irrigation Department, the trend began early in the 80s, forcing the Godavari to coil around the vast extant of Gopalapuram islands and gush towards the western side, eroding the river bunds to a great extent all along. Formation of a huge mass of silt around the Gopalapuram islands over a period of time was the cause for the river’s drifting, Mr. Krishna Rao observed while talking to The Hindu.
The Irrigation Department has undertaken a stupendous task of manipulating the river course in the form of formation of seven groins with a height of 30 metres at several vulnerable points under the Rs. 500-crore Godavari modernisation programme initiated by the government.
The groins built with hard stones would act as a bulwark against the drifting river and thereby save the bunds from erosion, the divisional engineer said.
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