Ongole Municipal Corporation steps up to curb drinking water scarcity

ONGOLE: Ongole Municipal Corporation (OMC) authorities are taking steps to address drinking water scarcity problem of in the city limits. On requests of the OMC authorities, Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) officials released waters to Ongole-1 and Ongole-2 summer storage tanks for two days and it will be continued up for next 10 days or till the water level reaches to the maximum level in the two tanks. 

Commissioner of the OMC M Venkateswara Rao visited the water flow in Ongole Branch Canal (OBC) from Ramatheertham Reservoir to the summer storage tanks recently and directed the officials concerned to take all necessary measures to stop the water supply losses through the canal. 

“In view of upcoming summer season water scarcity problems of Ongole Municipal Corporation, the authorities made arrangements to fulfill two Summer Storage (SS) Tanks with the NSP waters through Ramateertham Reservoir via OBC. In the coming two weeks time, we will fill the two SS tanks to their maximum capacity and it will help Ongole people. 

In view of last year’s water scarcity experiences, we alerted all the officials concerned and staff of OMC to take up appropriate measures in advance to address the problem,” OMC Commissioner M Venkateswara Rao explained. 

Ongole Summer Storage tank-1 maximum storage capacity is 1,950 million litres and at present it has around 916 million litres. The second SS tank maximum capacity is 3,750 million litres and at present it has around 2,920 ML against the total of 5,800 ML capacity, two SS tanks comprises around 3,850 ML waters. 

On the other hand, Rural Water Supply (RWS) wing authorities are speeding up the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) works which were sanctioned 22 works at a cost of Rs 747.19 lakh funds to provide tap water connections to cater the drinking water needs of the Ongole rural villages.