Is the deluge in Vijayawada a man-made tragedy?

Budameru drain in Andhra Pradesh sparks political debate as flooding of residential areas exposes man-made tragedy.

The Budameru, one of the major drains in Andhra Pradesh, has turned out to be an epicentre for heated political debate following the flooding and inundation of many residential localities in Vijayawada.

A war of words has erupted between Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his predecessor Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, with both blaming one another for the flooding of areas such as Ajithsingh Nagar, Payakapuram, YSR Colony, among others.

Notwithstanding the ongoing political slugfest, it is evident that the flooding of residential localities is a man-made tragedy rather than nature’s fury.

The successive governments haven’t paid enough attention to the Budameru issue. The negligence of the Water Resources Department (WRD) has only made things worse.

Firstly, a head regulator constructed at Velagaleru on the drain is poorly maintained. Its gates hardly function. And there are many breaches to the drain. Plans to increase the capacity of the Budameru Diversion Channel (BDC) to 10,000 cusecs still remain on paper.

More than 60,000 cusecs of flood reached Budameru from Khammam in Telangana due to heavy rains in just four days.

The governments have neither taken up works to modernise the drain nor remove encroachments on it. Also, the WRD hasn’t taken up steps to plug the breaches.