Nagavali River

The River Nagavali (Oriya: ନାଗାବଳୀ Telugu: నాగావళి నది) is one of the main rivers of Southern Orissa and North Eastern Andhra Pradesh States in India, between Mahanadi and Godavari basins.

Origin and Course

Nagavali River rises in the eastern slopes of the Eastern Ghats near Lakhbahal in the Kalahandi district of Orissa at an elevation of about 1,300 meters. The geographic co-ordinates of the river are north latitudes 18 10 to 19 44 and east longitudes of 82 53 to 84 05. Another name of the river Nagavali is Langulya.

The total length of the river is about 256 kilometers, out of which 161 kilometers are in Orissa and the rest in Andhra Pradesh. The catchment area of the basin is 9,510 square kilometers. Nagavali is an interstate river with 4462 sq.km and 5048 sq.km river basin area located in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh respectively. The river basin receives 1000 mm average rain fall annually. The uplands of the river basin are hilly areas with predominantly tribal populated. It drains parts of the Kalahandi, Rayagada and Koraput districts of Orissa and Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts of Andhra Pradesh.

Tributaries

The main tributaries of the River Nagavali are Jhanjavati,Barha, Baldiya, Satnala, Sitagurha, Srikona, Gumudugedda, Vottigedda, Suvarnamukhi, Vonigedda, Relligedda and Vegavati. The Suvarnamukhi river takes its birth in the hills of Salur mandal and takes an eastern direction and finally join the Nagavali at Sangam village in Vangara mandal of Srikakulam District. Vegavathi originates in pachipenta hills of Pachipenta Mandal.

• Vegavathi River takes its origin in the Pachipenta hills in Eastern Ghats. It is a tributary to Suvarnamukhi, which in turn is a tributary to River Nagavali. Salur town and Paradhi are located on the banks of this river. There are two Road bridges at these places.

Towns and Cities

• Rayagada town and district headquarters of Rayagada dist of Orissa, River Nagavali flows in outskirts of the town.
• Srikakulam town, the district headquarters in Andhra Pradesh: River Nagavali flows through Srikakulam town and meets the sea at Kallepalli village, 5 kilometers far from Srikakulam town.

• Hatipathar, near Rayagada: It is a place of great scenic beauty with two waterfalls on the course of River Nagavali. The boulders here appear like huge elephants.

Irrigation Projects

• Jhanjavati Project is located at Rajyalaxmipuram village in Komarada mandal of Vizianagaram district on Jhanjavati, a tributary of River Nagavali. It is a rubber dam and first of its kind in Andhra Pradesh and India and the biggest in Asia. It is aimed to utilize 4 TMC of available water and to irrigate / stabilize a total ayacut of 24,640 acres in Vizianagaram District. It was dedicated to the nation on 1 January 2006 by Chief Minister Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy. The rubber dam was installed on a concrete plate. Its size would be raised or reduced with the help of water pumped into it. It was planned to fix the rubber dam to a height of three metres to store water up to 125 metres in the reservoir without causing submergence in the Orissa side of the river. It is in technical collaboration with Hydro-Construct of Austria.

• Thotapalli Reservoir is located at village Thotapalli in Vizianagaram district and presently being upgraded as barriage.

• Madduvalasa Reservoir is located at Madduvalasa village in Vangara mandal of Srikakulam district. It is built across Vegavati and Suvarnamukhi tributaries. The project is started in 1977 and provides water for 15,000 acres of land for cultivation.

• Narayanapuram Project is located in Burja mandal in Srikakulam district.

Water use potential

The average annual water yield in the river is nearly 3 billion cubic meters. Presently water diversion barrages are constructed across the streams for monsoon season irrigation purpose. No major or medium water storage reservoir is constructed till now to supply the river water for larger area and during non monsoon months. The possible water storage reservoirs are located in Orissa and the potential water use in irrigation is in Andhra Pradesh. It is high time that AP should ask the central government to constitute a River Water Disputes Tribunal to allocate the Nagavali river water on equitable basis and authorize utilization of the river water fully for irrigation, hydropower, flood control, etc. Full utilization of Nagavali waters would bring all around development of Kalinga Andhra area of Andhra Pradesh.

See also

• Penner River
• Palar River
• Vamsadhara River
• Polavaram Project
• Sriram Sagar Project
• Nizam Sagar
• Balimela Reservoir
• Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal

References

• http://vizianagaram.ap.nic.in/
• http://nwda.gov.in/writereaddata/sublink2images/104.pdf