Konaseema: A lost heaven

It is said that people of Andhra Pradesh’s Konaseema, the area between two branches of the Godavari river and the Bay of Bengal, treat coconut tree as their elder son. Life revolves around the tree and its produce.

 But the pipeline leakage and the resulting blast, has left a scar on the green earth of the fertile delta. The coconut trees, spread across five km, also bore the brunt of the incinerating heat rather silently.

During the past 15 years, the delta has been home for 40 oil and gas fields in the Tatipaka, Adavipalem and Ponnamanda areas. Oil companies generate around 30 lakh cubic metre of gas every day and pump them through pipelines with 40 kg pressure per inch to the gas collection centres. The gas collection and distribution activity is so intense in the Konaseema region that 150 out of the 275 villages in the region have underground gas pipelines ticking like time bombs. 

The Konaseema soil along the Coromandel Coast and is very fertile and famous for its paddy, coconut, cashew nut and fish. In 2001, the ONGC, Cairn Energy and Gail began exploration activity covering 21,000 square km offshore and 20,000 square km onshore in the Delta area. According to locals in Nagaram there were more than 60 gas leakages in the region during these years of varying intensity, the Nagaram blast occurred in a 15 inch diameter pipeline made out of an alloy that is almost rust proof.However, the Pasarlapudi oil rig blow out also in the Mamidikuduru mandal in 1994 that continued to burn for 65 days, shattered the myth of safety projected by the oil companies. Fortunately, there was no loss of life during further minor blow outs in 1997 and 2005. “The people of the region are basically docile and they were told that oil and gas will make their region rich and in years the delta will turn to another oil rich Gulf,” says ABS Murty, a retired professor in nearby Narsapuram town on the other side of the Godavari River. 

Instead of development, what they saw was degradation of the fragile soil and frequent damages to the rural roads and bridges with the incessant movement of heavy vehicles carrying drilling machines. The impact of ONGC operations in the region adversely affected the agriculture. Now, a seismic survey is underway in 275 villages for fresh sources of gas and oil. As a result of these activities of drilling, the land and water bodies are getting contaminated. After the drilling, pipelines crisscrossing over 600 km carry the gas to the collection centre. During this process, leakages in these pipelines also pollute the water bodies.

“The area of 50 square yards at the drilling site will lose its fertility. In case of a leakage, the extent of damage could be up to 300 square yards,”  says P Udai Bhaskar of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Kakinada. “There should be an integrated management plan for the management of pipelines like in Switzerland. While other countries are achieving greater development with natural gas, we are actually destroying the fragile nature of Konaseema.”

Water pollution

“The extent of damage to agriculture in 15,000 acres in 7 mandals along the coast in East Godavari district is estimated to have crossed Rs 60 crore. Farmers are forced to turn their lands into fish ponds following the onshore exploration by the ONGC and Gail,” P Krishna Kishore, a lecturer in Amalapuram, a town 14 km from Nagaram observed. He further says that drinking water in 113 villages have become saline. “Three decades ago there was sweet potable water in every well, now the water tastes saline, the problem has spread to at least 890 square yards of area in the coastal belt,” Kishore who has been vehemently opposing the drilling activity said.

“I attribute the leakage of gas in Nagaram to subsidence of soil there,” retired professor of Geology G Krishna Rao of Andhra University in Visakhapatnam pointed out. Rao has time and again warned the authorities that the unstable soil in the region subsided up to five feet making the pipes crack open due to stress. “In Nagaram, I found that the soil has caved in. I don’t believe the corrosion theory, even though it is one of the three major reasons cited for gas pipeline leakages,” the professor said.According to him, there is also a variation of temperature under the soil and the gas in the pipelines is hot compared to the wet delta soil on the outside. “We can observe the canal crossing the pipeline linking the Tatipaka mini refinery where the leakage occurred. This also causes stress on the pipeline,” he says. He said that a group of geologists have been fighting against the underground pipeline method of the oil majors from long time. “The oil companies must invest money and construct a concrete base on which the pipeline could be laid,” Rao added. 

The observation of Asutosh Karnatak, the Director (Projects) of Gail, that there is evidence of the presence of carbon dioxide, sulphur and water in the pipeline which must be carrying only the natural gas, strengthens these arguments that there is something really wrong with the management of these pipelines. “The presence of these extraneous materials in the pipeline must be studied,” he added. The Gail, in the aftermath of the Nagaram blast, has decided to review safety aspects in the 11,000 km long pipeline carrying gas all over the country.

Related Stories

Evaluation must for pipeline health

The killer pipeline