Guntur: The Singaporeans, appointed to prepare the seed capital final master plan, have suggested the Marina barrage model of flood management to save the new capital from ‘Stream of Sorrow’, the Kondaveeti Vagu floods.
The Singaporeans have adopted multi-pronged drainage solutions to save the public from floods.
The flooding of Kondaveeti Vagu is similar to that of the rivers in Singapore hence the architects of the capital city master plan have suggested modernisation of Kondaveeti Vagu on lines of the Marina barrage project. The modernisation claims to switch the ‘Stream of Sorrow’ into a tourism spot like Hussainsagar in Hyderabad.
According to the CRDA sources, Singaporeans explained about adopting Active, Beautiful and Clean (ABC) Water for the beautification of urban spaces by restraining the floods.
The Singapore government constructed three reservoirs and a barrage to save the Geylang, Jalan Besar, Boat Quay and China town in the city-state. During the 70s, Singapore was often inundated due to floods so the government constructed three reservoirs namely Serangoon, Punggol and Marina reservoir.
Further it constructed a barrage (dam) to stop seawater from flowing into Singapore on Marina stream at the merging point with the sea. Nine crest gates of the dam is activated to release the excess storm water into the sea when the tide is low during floods and if the tides are high, excess storm water would be released into sea with the help of giant motor pumps which are capable of pumping an Olympic-size swimming pool per minute.
Similar floods were experienced in Kondaveeti Vagu, which inundates 12,000 acres of land in the capital region in its 45 km long run before merging into the Krishna river. The CRDA officials mentioned the same Marina stream development plan will be suitable for Kondaveeti Vagu.
Similarly a regulator with 19 crest gates was constructed on the banks of Krishna River in 1964 at Undavalli near Prakasam barrage to release the flood water into the river. However the regulator failed to control the Krishna River’s reverse flow into Kondaveeti Vagu. CRDA chief engineer K. Kasiviswesvara Rao said a team went to Singapore and briefed the Singaporeans on the Kondaveeti Vagu menace.
