Andhra Pradesh floods: Kadapa district's dam of sorrow

Heavy rains lashed Andhra Pradesh since Friday triggering floods in many areas. Kadapa district was one of the worst affected districts with rivers overflowing embankments and turning villages into one large water body.

But what turned the adverse weather event into a major natural disaster was a breach in the damn on Cheyyuru river.

According to Kadapa district Collector Vijaya Rama Raju the dam breach was the major factor that caused such a major calamity. He said that while it is true that the river course changed but the dam breach was what caused the real destruction.

The Annamayya project on Cheyyeru river turned out to be the sorrow of many a village in Rajampet Assembly constituency in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh.

The flash flood caused due to a breach of the project’s earthen embankment caught at least 18 people in a watery grave and left many others missing in these villages.

A sudden gush of about two lakh cusecs of floodwater on Friday, with the level reaching up to 10 feet height, caught the villagers unawares and scampering for their lives.

Tens of houses in these villages downstream the project were reduced to rubble. The villagers literally lost everything, except the clothes on their person.

Agricultural crops in hundreds of acres stood destroyed. Tens of cattle heads were washed away.

Locals have accused administration of gross mismanagement and blaming them for not taking action on time.

Annamayya is a medium irrigation project with a gross capacity of only 2.24 tmc ft on Cheyyeru River, it fulfils the drinking water needs of 140 habitations.

The breach in the dam added the water gushing down from the mountains due to heavy rainfall resulted in an overall discharge of over two lakh cusecs.

That pushed Cheyyeru river into spate, inundating at least 10 villages downstream and leaving widespread destruction in its wake.

The temple of the local goddess, which somehow remained intact, has now turned into the only shelter zone for the hapless villagers.