Environmentalist Vikram Soni, who is taking part in the Magsaysay award winner Rajendra Singh’s Krishna River Conservation Yatra, said mechanical sand mining at numerous sites along the dry riverbed from the Prakasam barrage to the sea and also its upstream reduced the water holding depth in the riverbed, floodplain and aquifer from 5 to 9 meters.
The total depth of sand varies from 30 metres in the riverbed to 5 metres in the outlying area of the river. This has severely affected the water holding capacity of the entire sandy floodplain which has been created by floods through the meandering course of the river over millions of years.
Farm lands at risk
Addressing mediapersons here on Sunday, Mr. Soni said water was found in the riverbed and in the sand mining areas and adjacent to the agricultural fields at a depth of 4 to 5 metres. The loss of sand would gradually diminish the invisible fresh water resource in the underground aquifers leading to seepage of sea water into the land. With this, the fertility of the adjoining floodplain lands would be lost.
“At present, the left and right canals are providing water for irrigation to the farm lands adjoining the river but this was only a small fraction of the water used in those lands as most farms were drawing water through borewells from the floodplain,” he pointed out.
Mr. Soni further said the flow in the Krishna river should be restored from the left and the right canals. By doing so, the sea water ingress could be checked and fresh water stored in the floodplain aquifer. Except for paddy cultivation, the river water should be used only for drip irrigation, he suggested.
