A group of men chuckled at the heap of smashed alcohol bottles at the bottom of a dried up lake bed in Palnadu district’s Bollapalli. “We may not have water but we do have a place to consume liquor,” Gollaiah, a 50-year-old resident of the village, told me sarcastically.
Gollaiah and other residents of Bollapalli are firm in their belief that the Varikapudisela irrigation project – a vow made to Palnadu by successive governments – is never going to happen. The project was envisioned by Chandrababu Naidu during his first tenure as Chief Minister in united Andhra Pradesh between 1995-1999. It promised to provide drinking water and develop irrigation facilities in the upland areas in western parts of Palnadu district, including the mandals of Veldurthy, Durgi, Macherla, Karempudi, Gurajala, and Bollapalli.
In the three decades since, the inauguration of the project construction has happened thrice – under CMs Naidu and YS Rajasekhar Reddy in united Andhra, and most recently in November 2023 under former CM Jagan Mohan Reddy in divided AP – but work on the project is yet to start.
“We would wager that no other project has been inaugurated as many times in India,” was a sentiment that several of Palnadu’s residents and activists expressed.
Yet, every election, Varikapudisela forms the basis for whom Palnadu’s residents vote – and for good reason.
Palnadu district has the least tap water facilities in Andhra Pradesh, according to data from the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). Out of 4.34 lakh households in the district, only 1.54 lakh (35.54%) have tap water connection.
While several states have achieved a higher percentage of functional household tap water connections, Andhra Pradesh – alongside Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha – has set a goal for March 2027, which points to how far it is lagging behind. Andhra Pradesh is also yet to prepare the draft of the operation and management policy under JJM to ensure the long-term sustainability of water supply systems.
The object of the Varikapudisela project was to lift and draw water from Varikapudisela vagu (stream) in Palnadu’s Veldurthy mandal and use it to irrigate the mandals of Veldurthy, Durgi, Macherla, Karempudi, Gurajala, and Bollapalli. Phase one of the project was intended to cover 24,900 acres in Veldurthy. Phase two focused on covering 1,57,222 acres in Veldurthy, 36,440 acres in Durgi mandal, 6,641 acres in Macherla, 1,627 acres in Karempudi, 209 acres in Gurajala mandal, and 33,556 acres in Bollapalli mandal.
Water woes for farmers
“Approximately 15 years ago, the panchayat set up two borewells and ensured that the drilled water was supplied to one tap for around 10 households. When the underground water depleted, we started to pay the man in charge of releasing the water. So for a couple of hours in a day, each locality in the village gets water. But the lake has no water,” Sirivella Subba Rao, a resident of Bollapalli, told TNM.
“All of us are farmers,” Raju babu, another resident, stated. “We don’t have a drinking water problem because of the borewells. But for farming and the animals we use for tilling, the water simply doesn’t suffice. Since farming is not an option, we end up going for karuvu pani (drought relief works) to make ends meet now,” he added.
Swathi, another resident in Bollapalli’s Remidicherla hamlet, said that though her family gets drinking water, they are forced to buy water for other needs. “It costs Rs 200 for one can of water that lasts us only a day. We end up spending upto Rs 5,000 per month on water,” she added.
Bollapalli’s water woes are further compounded by the fact that the village is located within the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve.
Ramachandra Reddy, a journalist and activist who has been involved in fighting for the Varikapudisela project in Macherla mandal, said, “Forest officials intermittently release photographs of tigers roaming near Bollapalli to use it as a crutch to justify delay in commencing construction.”
“These are just excuses. Water for Palnadu was proposed in the 1950s by the Khosla Committee. The tiger reserve was built only in 1983. For nearly three decades, nothing was done,” he added.
Residents also blamed the Forest Department for cutting off access to rainwater. “We could at least use the rainwater that would fill up the lake during the monsoon. But the Forest Department dug a 20-feet makeshift ditch on the borders of Bollapalli. Instead of filling up the lake, the rainwater now accumulates in the ditch, and we’re unable to use the water because it is too far from the village. Our kala (dream) has been to see our lake fill up with water that we can use for irrigation, but no one seems to care,” Gujjila Anji Reddy, also a resident of Bollapalli, in his mid-twenties, added.
Residents of Macherla, Durgi, and Veldurthy also deal with water scarcity for their farming needs. “Farmers in Durgi end up spending a lot of money to drill for water each year. If the drilling produces results, well and good. If not, it is a loss,” Janayya, a farmers rights activist in Durgi, told TNM.
The fight for Varikapudisela
Like other Bollapalli residents, Ramana Rao, a farmers’ rights activist in his seventies, also told TNM that any hope for water is dwindling by the day. He had set up the Varikapudisela Sadhana Committee in the mid-2000s to fight for the project.
“We have waited for taagu-saagu neeru (drinking and irrigation water) since 1952 when the Khosla Committee – under Central Waterways Irrigation and Navigation Commission chairman Ajudhia Nath Khosla – recommended that a canal should be added to the right side of the Nandikonda project to irrigate areas in Guntur and Prakasam districts.”
At that time, Palnadu was a part of Guntur district; it was in April 2022 that it became a separate district when divided Andhra Pradesh’s districts were reorganised.
Janayya told TNM that Akkiraju Haragopal, a leader of the CPI (Maoist) and the People’s War Group, had initiated the fight for the project.
“Even registering the Varikapudisela Sadhana Committee was an incredibly difficult task as government officials assumed it was a Naxalite front when in reality it comprised farmer rights activists and farmers,” Ramana Rao recalled.
While the project is yet to see the light of day, Bollapalli residents have another issue to contend with. The current TDP government is focusing on the Banakacherla irrigation project intended to irrigate the Rayalaseema region. The transit reservoir for this project is constructed in Bollapalli, which would effectively submerge the mandal.
“People trust me because I have been fighting for water rights for several years now. They come up to me and ask, ‘Are our lands going to go? Will we have to leave?’ I don’t know how to tell them that we may not only not get water but we might also lose our lands. It is agonising,” Ramana Rao said.
Political blame-game
Since the bifurcation of the Telugu states, the TDP and the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) have criticised each other for sidelining the project and the interests of Palnadu’s residents.
While former CM Jagan had criticised the TDP and Chandrababu Naidu for commencing the Varikapudisela project’s construction without the requisite permissions, the TDP while in opposition between 2019 and 2024 protested against the Jagan government for delaying the project.
Narasaraopet MP Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayulu has been advocating for the Varikapudisela project in the Lok Sabha since 2019, when he first became a Parliamentarian representing the YSRCP. Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he defected to the TDP.
Speaking to TNM, the MP said that the construction was delayed owing to the fact that permissions for the project were never sought until 2023 under Jagan’s rule. “Also, the amount for the Central Forest and Environment Department’s clearances wasn’t paid. The Rs 14 crore intended for clearances has now been sent to the Finance Department for approval under the current TDP government. The clearances should be done soon,” he added.
“Aside from the delay with clearances, we have a problem with finances also. We have to approach banks to fund Varikapudisela. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is ready to help but the limits under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act pose a problem,” he said.
The FRBM Act imposes a limit on state governments to ensure that the debt doesn’t exceed 20% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).
When asked about Bollapalli’s concerns of submergence owing to the Banakacherla project, Krishna Devarayulu said that the concerns were valid. He was, however, quick to add that “rehabilitation would be provided for those displaced.”
But policy and politics notwithstanding, it is Palnadu’s farmers who struggle as they continue to wait for water.
Asked whether the project was likely to ever materialise, an exhausted Ramana Rao took a beat to answer. “I don’t want to say it will never happen. Asha jeevulu kada? Ostadi emo. (We are optimistic beings, aren’t we? Maybe it will come about.)