Budameru is to Vijayawada what Kosi is to Bihar. Like how the Kosi river is called the ‘sorrow of Bihar’, the Budameru rivulet too has earned the sobriquet ‘sorrow of Vijayawada’.
Last week, it lived up to its grim image as the coastal Andhra city faced severe flooding following breaches to the rivulet due to torrential rains.
An otherwise gentle rivulet normally warns Vijayawada residents before it strikes. It glides smoothly, caressing the northern part of Vijayawada, whenever its catchment areas receive enough rainfall. But over the last weekend, the creek was in full fury for the first time in two decades.
As incessant torrential showers pounded Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the run-off water from the hillocks in the Krishna district and Khammam in the neighbouring Telugu state flowed into Budameru. And the creek turned furious, sending its muddy currents charging downstream.
The merciless waters invaded obstacles — mostly man-made — while rushing towards the destination, the Kolleru, Asia’s largest shallow lake, in the Eluru district.
Over 2.76 lakh people were affected when the brook found its way with a vengeance. For the first time since 2005, its waters invaded the city.
Wages of human greed
Budameru reclaimed its floodplains which have shrunk over the decades. It invaded lanes, inundating houses and other constructions that have come up in the plains. Several lives were lost as the stream flooded the encroached areas.
From the hills of Mylavaram, Budameru traverses 176 kilometres before it empties into the Kolleru Lake. Several streams join it on the way. At Velagaleru near Vijayawada, a barrage with 11 locks impounds water if the flow is sluggish. Budameru’s catchment area is spread over 900 square kilometres, which is about 48 per cent area of the former Krishna district.
The rivulet is not a tributary of the Krishna River, but a part of the Kolleru basin. Besides the encroachments on its floodplains, human greed has shrunk the Kolleru Lake as well, forcing water to occupy the space that originally belonged to it.
The Budameru diversion channel, constructed in 2006-07, could not rise to the occasion this time. The channel was to take the Budameru flood into the 37,500-cusec-capacity Polavaram Right Canal which finally empties into the Krishna.
The rebound effect
Following heavy rains, the Krishna River itself was in spate, and its water level was higher than normal. The flow of water was more than 11 lakh cusecs. The Polavaram Right Canal could not debouch the Budameru waters, since the water level of the river was higher than that of the canal. It created a rebound effect as 50,000 cusecs of water flowed in with tremendous velocity.
Subsequently, the water level rose rapidly, breaching the bund at three places, and overflowing into residential colonies. Meanwhile, authorities opened all 11 locks of the Velagaleru barrage to manage the water level. However, the water that gushed out of the barrage flooded the colonies downstream. Most colonies were on Budameru’s floodplains.
The diversion canal upstream of the barrage has a limited capacity of about 7,500 cusecs. It was designed to prevent flooding of the residential areas in the northern part of Vijayawada.
About 20 years ago, this part of the city was sparsely populated. It now has buzzing marketplaces and colonies. Most colonies came up on the floodplains.
The then government constructed the canal in 2006-2007 after the Budameru flood of 2005, thinking it would be insurance against floods. Little did the government know that Budameru posed a bigger threat to the city than anticipated. The canal’s capacity of 7,500 cusecs was woefully inadequate when an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 cusecs of water flowed in during the weekend.
Irrigation experts attributed the floods to the encroachment of the Budameru’s floodplains, negligence in clearing the diversion canal of water hyacinths, and a pregnant Krishna River, which caused the water to rebound.
Besides, several drains, including Muneru and Paleru, which were in spate joined the river in the upper reaches which increased the force of the water in the Krishna river that pushed Budameru water back into the Polavaram Right Main canal.
If the floodplains are encroached upon as in the northern part of Vijayawada, there would be disastrous consequences. The experts have highlighted the need for effective steps to prevent further encroachments and relocation of the houses on the floodplains to clear the way for Budameru.
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