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Flood after Annamayya dam breach: Year on, families of victims struggle to pick up pieces
In the early hours of Friday, the Pincha project breached and the floodwater rushed downstream to Annamayya project. By 5.30 am, the water inflow into Annamayya project was 3.2 lakh cusecs, while its discharge capacity was only 2.17 lakh cusecs
Hyderabad
For 37-year-old Korrapati Giri Prasad, a priest in Paleshwaram temple of Lord Siva at Mandapalli village of Rajampet block in Andhra Pradesh’s Annamayya district, life has never been the same in the last one year.
It was on this day last year, Prasad lost nine members of his family -- his wife, two daughters and a son, besides his sister and her two children, his sister-in-law and her daughter, who were swept away by the swirling waters of Cheyyeru river following breach of the reservoir bund of Annamayya medium irrigation project, about three kilometres away.
“It all happened in a matter of 10 minutes. There was nothing I could do at that time, except saving myself by climbing atop the “gopuram” (dome) of the temple, watching my family members being swept away the massive flood waters,” Prasad said.
Prasad and his family members came to the temple complex as early as 5 am on November 19, which happened to be Karthika Pournami, an auspicious day for worshipping Lord Siva. “While I was making preparations for the abhishekam (anointment) of the Lord at Kanyashwara, others were in the adjacent temples of Lord Ganesha and Lord Subrahmanyam within the premises,” he recalled.
From nowhere, there was a sudden gush of flood water entering Mandapalli village and swept the entire area. “In fact, the temple is located at a higher gradient, at least about 60 ft. Yet, the entire temple complex was flooded with water. Everybody tried to himself and herself, but not all were lucky. Many of them got washed away,” Prasad said.
Prasad’s father Korrapati Rammurthy, his brother Mallikarjuna and nephew Hemanth, who stayed back in the village, managed to survive by moving atop the terrace of their house. “Nothing was left. All the household articles, food and furniture got washed away in the flash floods,” he said.
Initially, there was no trace of Prasad’s family members and the authorities declared that the whereabouts of 15 people were not known. “But five days later, the bodies of my family members were located at different places, about five to six km downstream, in a highly decomposed condition. They were handed over to us later after post-mortem,” Prasad said.
“Since then, I have been just surviving like a living corpse. I am trying to find solace in worshipping Lord Siva,” he said.
According to a statement by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in the state assembly a week later, heavy rains in a span of 24 hours in the upstream of Annamayya project led to the deluge. There was a heavy rainfall of 10.7 cm in the area between November 18 and 19, leading to a sudden increase in the inflow of water into Pincha project from 3,845 cusecs to 1.17 lakh cusecs by midnight of November 18.
In the early hours of Friday, the Pincha project breached and the floodwater rushed downstream to Annamayya project. By 5.30 am, the water inflow into Annamayya project was 3.2 lakh cusecs, while its discharge capacity was only 2.17 lakh cusecs.
“In the 50 years history of Annamayya project, it has not received such huge volume of inflows. The unprecedented pressure on the project led to breach of the bund and subsequent deluge. About 1,250 families are living in the villages downstream. As many as 400 families living in the low-lying areas were shifted to safer places,” the chief minister said.
The floods inundated villages like Gundluru, Seshamambapuram, Pulathur, Thogurupeta, Ramachandrapuram, Hemadrivaripalle, Akepadu and Mandapalli villages and other smaller hamlets along the river course.
The floods left a trail of destruction in these villages. Hundreds of acres of fertile lands were destroyed and the lands were completely covered by sand and mud that the flood water brought along with it. Thousands of houses were razed to the ground and hundreds of cattle also got washed away.
In all, 33 people were declared dead due to the breach of Annamayya project. “Bodies of six persons have still not been untraced even after a year. Maybe, they were swept away into the Somasila reservoir on Penna river in Nellore district downstream. Their families have gone helter-skelter,” said M Ramachandraiah, a correspondent of a vernacular daily.
Parna Ramaiah, a 61-year-old retired watchman of Annamayya project, who saved hundreds of lives from the devastating floods on the night of November 18 by alerting the villagers of Togurupeta, expressed regret that the state government had not taken any steps to restore the project yet.
He said the villages under Annamayya project turned into virtual graveyards. “Not a single house withstood the flood fury. We have lost everything – money, gold, food grains, clothes, household articles, furniture,” Ramaiah said.
He said the chief minister visited the flood-affected areas a few days later and consoled the bereaved families. “The government gave ₹5 lakh to each of the families of the deceased. But that was all we got,” Ramaiah said.
The authorities assured to extend financial assistance to those who lost their houses, besides removal of heaps of sand and mud that piled up over hundreds of acres of fertile lands. “We ran from pillar to post giving representations to every official – right from mandal revenue officer to the district collector, but to no avail,” said, Ramaiah, whose two acres of land where he used to grow turmeric, was completely destroyed.
On Friday, a day before the first anniversary of the deluge, Rajampet district administration released an amount of ₹1.40 lakh each to 147 families, whose houses were completely razed in the floods. “We have credited the amount to the accounts of the beneficiaries by Friday evening itself. They can construct the houses with this money,” district collector P S Girisha told reporters.
Engineer-in-chief (irrigation) C Narayana Reddy said the state government had given administrative sanction for ₹787.77 crore on November 2 for restoration of Annamayya project along with providing additional spillway.
“The designs and drawings are under preparation and scrutiny. We shall float tenders shortly and ground the work in the last week of December. We hope to complete the restoration of the project by December 2024,” Reddy said.
