Andhra Lakes Get World Heritage Irrigation Structure Status 2020

Kambham Lake, Porumamilla Lake and Kurnool-Cuddapah (KC) Canal from the State of Andhra Pradesh have been accorded World Heritage Irrigation Structures status for the year 2020. Fourteen irrigation projects in the world were listed as heritage irrigation structures, out of which four were from India.

For the first time the State of Andhra Pradesh has received this rare recognition for three of its structures and the other one was the  Dhamapur Lake at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra.

A panel of judges from the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) selected these from the list of international entries for the “World Heritage Irrigation Structures (WHIS), which includes both old operational irrigation structures as well as ancient ones.

A Task Team is set up every year to select historical drainage/drainage structures as received from various National Committees (NCs) to give recognition to the historical irrigation structures on the lines of World Heritage Sites (as recognized by UNESCO)

Kambham Lake- Second largest man-made irrigation tanks in Asia

Kambham lake is a historical water body located at Markapur in Prakasam district. Built on the Gundlakamma River, this lake is the second largest man-made irrigation tank in Asia. Built over 500 years ago, the pond covers an area of ​​10,300 acres. It is also known as Gundlakamma Lake as it was built on the Gundlakamma rivulet upon Nallamalai hills. Built by queen Varadharajamma (also known as Ruchidevi) the first wife of Sri Krishnadevaraya  of Vijayanagara empire. She was also the daughter of Gajapatis of Odisha. According to the Imperial Gazette of India, at the turn of the 20th century, the dam was 57 feet (17 m) tall, and the drainage area was 430 square miles (1,100 km2). The lake directly irrigates about 10,300 acres. The lake is about 7 km long and about 3.5 km wide.

Porumamilla Lake

The Porumamilla Lake located near Kalasapadu in  Kadapa district has a history of over 500 years. Irrigation and water Department sources say that the lake had become known after an inscription was found in the year 1903. According to the Porumamilla inscription, the lake was built during the reign of Bhaskaradu ( Bhavaduradu), the son of the first Bukkarayalu of the Vijayanagara empire, when he was the head of the Udayagiri kingdom.The lake extends over an area of ​​3,864 acres.

130 years  of KC Canal History

The Kurnool- Cuddapah Canal was constructed by the Britishers between 1863 and 1870 as an irrigation and navigation canal. This canal which interconnects the rivers Penna and Tungabhadra, starts from the Sunkesula barrage located on the Tungabhadra River near Kurnool, to Krishnarajapuram in Kadapa district. The canal presently irrigates nearly 1,70,000 acres with 40 Tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) water utilisation from the Krishna River.

Initially built by the Madras Irrigation and Canal Company, a private Dutch company it handed over to another company in the middle, as it could not be completed. By 1933, it had become a full-fledged irrigation project as per Sir Arthur Cotton's advice to convert it into an irrigation source and stop all navigation. To improve the efficiency the modernization and reconstruction of the canal has been taken up under the KC Canal modernization programme from 2002.

ICID vice-president Kaluvai Ellareddy said the selection was made from historic irrigation structures that have a history of over a hundred years and are still functional. He said letters were written to all the states to send entries, one of which was from Maharashtra and three from Andhra Pradesh were selected by a panel of judges.