GUNTUR: The free sand scheme and promoting excessive digging of sand in the Krishna river is posing a threat to water stock in the river and to the ecological conditions. The establishment of world-class new capital Amaravati has increased constructions in Guntur and Krishna district for the past one year and now the free sand scheme is promoting more new constructions. The floor under the sand in a riverbed forms an upwards dyke which traps water upstream of it. This would help stock water in the river. But, the excessive digging of sand would not stock the water, which is a threat to the new capital Amaravati in the future. The environmentalists are demanding imposing restrictions on sand digging so as to preserve the water to quench the thirst of the public.
Geologist P. Nitish Rao said that sand can store 50 per cent of water in voids between the solids of sand and 35 per cent of this water can be used. He said that sand consums water faster than its rate of creation as sand takes 25,000 years to be created from the sand stone and mountains and after breakdown, sand flows down to the rivers. He said that river sand is best for construction purposes as sand from deserts and others resources are rounded in shape and do not stick together and sticking is essential for construction. The sand from Krishna river banks is of very top quality but sadly the excessive digging will become hazardous for the stocking of water. So, the government should protect Krishna river for Amaravati’s sake.
Prof. P. Sankara Pitchaiah of the Acharya Nagarjuna Univer-sity, said excessive digging of sand with machinery disturbs microclimates, and will change water balance, there will be fall in water table, affect number of rare species, birds, fish and crabs. The locals of the Ama-ravati capital region claimed that the villages of Rayapudi, Abbarajupalem and Uddandara-yunipalem never saw groundwater level decrease, but this summer the groundwater level depleted due to excessive sand mining. They alleging that the free sand policy did not help the common public. They urged the government to initiated measures to stop excessive sand digging.
