Watch The Amazing Moment When A River Starts Flowing After 20 Years Of Drought! [Video]

An amazing video showing the moment a river in southern India came back to life after 20 years of drought has gone viral. The video clip uploaded to YouTube on September 16 is already approaching 100,000 views. According to to the Mirror, the amazing incident happened in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh state in southern India. The river shown in the video is the little known Kalavapalli River which according to locals last saw water over 20 years ago. The area through which this river flows has been facing a severe drought for the past 20 years. However, thanks to a bout of rainfall near the source of the river, the river has started flowing again.

This video was captured during the moment the river started flowing again.

The excitement of the people who came to watch the river flow again is evident in the video as they are seen shouting and rejoicing the arrival of water. An entire generation has seen the river bed perennially dry and for several children in the area, the Kalavapalli river never existed as a river. In fact, for many children in the region, the dry riverbed served as playgrounds.

The Anantapur district is located in the semi-arid region of Andhra Pradesh where the annual rainfall rarely exceeds 300mm. The drought that the area has been facing for the past two decades only added to the misery of the people living in the area. Lack of governmental help and infrastructure meant that the district earned the dubious distinction of being one of the least developed districts in India. While the fortunes of the people living here may not change in the foreseeable future, the arrival of water in the Kalavapalli river has given a new lease of life for the people of the region who had given up all hopes of seeing the river flow again. Pertinent to note here is the fact that the river started flowing even as the annual monsoons started retreating across the rest of India.

Elsewhere in India, the retreating monsoon showers caused havoc in western India after landslides and floods caused traffic disruptions and accidents. Rail traffic on the busy Mumbai -Pune rail route had to be stopped when a section of the railway track was washed away by flash floods that hit the area. Strangely, several other areas in India are still facing a drought situation and have received little or no rainfall this monsoon.

[Image Via Youtube Screengrab]