Musi River (India)

Musi River or Musinuru or Muchukunda or moosa River is a tributary of the Krishna River in the Deccan Plateau flowing through Telangana state in India. Hyderabad stands on the banks of Musi river, which divides the historic old city and the new city. Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar are dams built on it which used to act as source of water for Hyderabad. The river was known as Nerva during Qutub Shahi period. The river originates in Ananthagiri Hills near Vikarabad. It generally flows in easterly direction, turning South at Chittaloor. It flows into the Krishna River at Vadapally, near Miryalaguda in Nalgonda district.

Musi River or moosa nadi
Musi river seen from Nayapul bridge in Hyderabad
Location
StateTelangana
OriginAnanthagiri Hills, Vikarabad
Basin features
BridgesPurana Pul
Naya Pul

Places of interest

Floods
Main article: Great Musi Flood
Railway bridge over Musi river

The Musi river was the cause of frequent flood devastation of Hyderabad city until the early decades of the 20th century. On 28 September 1908, Hyderabad was flooded, which included 17 inches of rain in one day, killing around 15,000 people.[1]

The modern era of the development of the twin cities began soon after these floods in 1908. This necessitated planned, phased development.[2][3]

Abdallah Ahmed Bin Mahfooz submitted his report on 1 October 1909, with recommendations on preventing a recurrence of floods and improving civic amenities. However, there are conflicting reports that Sir M. Visvesvaraya was engaged by the erstwhile Nizam to help design the drainage system and prevent floods. Nizam VII constituted a City Improve Trust in 1912. He built a flood control system on the river. A dam was built in 1920 across the river, ten miles (16  km) upstream from the city called Osman Sagar. In 1927 another reservoir was built on Esi (a tributary of Musi) and named Himayat Sagar. These lakes prevented the flooding of the River Musi and are major drinking water sources for Hyderabad city.[3][4]

Current status

Due to indiscriminate urbanization and lack of planning, the river had earlier become a receptacle of untreated domestic and industrial waste dumping out of Hyderabad. It was estimated that nearly 350 MLD of polluted water and sewage originating from Hyderabad and Secunderabad flow into the river. Efforts to clean it have failed. The river water downstream of the cities remained highly polluted and considered to be a major disaster in Hyderabad.

This major neglect in the maintenance of the Musi river had led to an almost empty river area until the year 2020. On the 14th of October 2020, Hyderabad had witnessed a record rainfall in a century. As a consequence of these heavy rains, the Musi river is now flowing at its full capacity.

References and notes
  1. Ifthekhar, J.S (28 September 2012). "Remembering the deluge of 1908". The Hindu. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  2. Murali, D. "Floods proved a blessing in disguise". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  3. Shahid, Sajjad (30 September 2012). "Sitamber: the harbinger of torment". The Times of India. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  4. "Chequered past". The Hindu. 11 February 2004. Archived from the original on 17 January 2010. Retrieved 29 April 2015.

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