Drinking water shortage has turned acute in the fluoride-affected Prakasam district as 232 notified tanks in the district and the two summer storage tanks in the city which depend upon replenishment from the River Krishna have dried up.
Much against odds, denizens are being supplied drinking water once in seven days by drawing from the dead storage of the summer storage tank-I with the help of electric motors and by tapping 35 open wells. Elsewhere in the district, people depend upon farm wells to quench their thirst.
While the storage in tank-I is only 200 million litres as against its capacity of 1,950, the tank-II, which can retain 3,850 million litres, has dried up completely,” say the Ongole municipal corporation officials.
Currently, the Ongole Municipal Corporation is drawing 5 to 6 million litres from the Gundalakamma reservoir and another 1.2 million litres from open bore wells as the dams across the Krishna in the State have not received inflows even in the second week of September from the upper riparian States, says Municipal Commissioner S. Venkatakrishna.
“We will not be able to continue drinking water supply if replenishment from River Krishna is not ensured from the Nagarjunasagar reservoir in the next 10 to 15 days,” says Municipal Engineer D. Sundarama Reddy.
Reduced supply
As many as 300 tankers with 4,000 litres capacity each have been deployed to meet the drinking water requirements of the people living on the city outskirts like Pernamitta, Pelluru and Koppolu. The civic authorities are supplying less than 10 million litres per day (MLD) to the denizens now as against the normal supply of 34 MLD.
The district, with 48 of the 56 mandals fluoride-affected, has been experiencing a peculiar situation this year with all the notified and non-notified drinking water tanks becoming almost empty, even as the district experienced excess rainfall.
The district administration has pressed for immediate release of 4 tmcft of Krishna water to the district to tide over the water crisis, says Irrigation Superintending Engineer R. Reddiah.