Krishna delta will turn into a desert in 20 yrs: Vikram Soni

Vijayawada: Prof Vikram Soni, architect of Natural Cities, expressed concern that the fertile lands of Krishna and Guntur districts in Krishna delta will lose their fertility due to indiscriminate digging of sand from the Krishna river downstream of Prakasam barrage.

Highlights:

• Along with environmentalists and social activists tours some mandals in Krishna and Guntur districts to study environmental impact on quarrying of sand and water flows
• Says if there is no sand in water, rain water or river water will flow into sea resulting in decline in sweet groundwater
• Fertile lands with multi-crop potential will turn barren

Professor Vikram Soni along with other environmentalists and social activists toured some mandals of Krishna and Guntur districts and Amaravati region to study the environmental impact on digging of sand and water flows from August 2 to 5 and addressed media conference in Vijayawada on Sunday.

Vikram Soni, expert in designing cities and an environmentalist, said due to cessation of flow of water of Krishna river for the last few years, the ingress of salt water from sea has been increasing and reached to almost 50 km from sea. He said fertile lands with multi crop potential would lose fertility and entire delta region will become a desert in another 20 years.

Rajadhani Raitu, Raitu Kooli Parirakshna Samithi has arranged the river study tour. Vikram Soni has expressed concern over the digging of sand with machinery along the Krishna river.

He said sand is very useful to hold the water in river and it will ultimately lead to increase in sweet water on either side of the river.

Vikram Soni said if there is no sand in river, rain water or river water would flow towards sea very swiftly leading to decline of sweet groundwater either side of the Krishna river.

He further said that the team had noticed that total depth of sand varies from 30 metres in the riverbed to five metres in the outlaying area of the river and felt it was against the nature. He said the rivers must have sufficient sand to maintain ecological balance.

He said the entire natural river flow system which has been existing for millions of years, has been ruined by people for the sake of money by selling each tractor sand for Rs 5000 or Rs 6000. He suggested increasing drip irrigation and borewells water for cultivation of crops to save the floodplain of Krishna river from Prakasam barrage to Divi Seema.

He said decreasing water supplies from right and left canal are putting pressure on borewells and ground water and it may also create problems in future.

He said, “We must ensure flow of water through Krishna river to check man-made disasters and save fertility of the soil and finally check ingress of saline water from sea.”

Ekta Parishad President P V Rajagopal, Rashtriya Swabhiman Andholan National Organising Secretary Basavaraj Patil, Social Activist Bolisetty Satyanarayana, National Fishermen Association Ex president Revu Babu Rao, Rajadhani Raitu, Raitu Kooli Parirakshna Samithi president Anumolu Gandhi, Dalit Assigned land owners association president S francis and others spoke on the occasion.