No Foresight Of Drinking Water Scarcity

Vijayawada: Drinking water scarcity has taken over the state of Andhra Pradesh. The government which is supposed to be busy in providing basic amenities to the people has rather prefered to spend its time buying opposition party's MLAs. Due to the targets set for them, the ministers and the MLAs of the ruling party are busy decoying the leaders of opposition party by different means. Hence, the people are left with nobody to talk to about their problems.

The state has dried up due to the high summer temperatures. The villages, the towns and the cities of the state are in no way free of the problem. Lakes and other water bodies are experiencing low levels due to drying up of groundwater, thus causing scarcity of drinking water. Prakasam Barrage is seeming to be rich with sand dunes rather than with water. Apparently, the water in Prakasam Barrage may totally dry up in 10 more days. If this happens there will be no provision of water to the cities in the capital region like Vijayawada, Guntur and Tenali and many villages after 10 days. If water is not released from Sri Sailam, Krishna and Guntur districts will have to face complete lack of water. The drinking water scarcity faced by Kadapa, Kurnool, Nandyala, Nandikotkur and other areas of Rayalaseema is too severe to describe. Still the Government is behaving indifferent towards this problem.

Impending danger

The water level at Prakasam Barrage, the crucial point of Krishna delta, is falling rapidly. In a period of 1 week, the water level has come down by 2 inches. Presently the water level in the barrage is just 6 feet and this is equal to 1.5 TMC. The barrage is currently supplying 1000 cusec of water per day to Krishna and Guntur districts. If 0.5 TMC water is stored in dead storage, the remaining 1 TMC water will be enough for only 10 days. After that, if it doesn't rain or water is not released from Sri Sailam, Krishna and Guntur districts will have to face severe circumstances.

Severity of water scarcity

They are 20 municipalities, 2 corporations and 1981 village panchayats in Krishna and Guntur districts together. The water has been released twice in February into canals to fill water in lakes. There are 129 drinking water lakes in Guntur District and 22 in Prakasam district under Krishna West delta. Among these, over 200 lakes are seen with their basins cracked without water. 0.02 TMC and 0.042 TMC of water was given through left canal in November of 2015 and April respectively. In spite of Krishna board's instructions for release of 2 TMC of water to Krishna district from Sagar's left canal, the Government's negligence led to its lack of implementation.

A worse situation in Krishna East Delta

While there are 393 drinking water lakes in Krishna East delta spread over Krishna and West Godavari districts, 43 of them do not have even a drop of water. The number of lakes with more than 25% of water is just 60 and that of the lakes with water above 50% is 96. There are only 16 lakes with water filled to 100%. With these lakes, water supply is possible till the 24th of this month. Then 2.07 TMC water will be necessary throughout the summer. This has been reported by the officials to the Government. The amount of water that can be taken from Sri Sailam project is only 3 TMC. The officials state that giving 2.07 TMC to Krishna east delta alone is not possible. In light of this, the Government has not yet thought about alternative plans.

At Rayalaseema..

Alaganuru balancing reservoir that has supplied drinking water for Kadapa corporation has totally dried up. Still the Government has not taken up any steps. Sunkesula barrage that supplies drinking water to Kurnool city has 0.08 TMC of water. This water will be sufficient for just 10 days. If SS tank of Kurnool is properly used, it will supply water to Kurnool for a month.

While people are suffering severely due to lack of drinking water, no steps are being taken  at the district level or the state level. Targets are being set to the ministers not in solving people's problems but in buying opposition MLAs. Thereby there is nobody to care for people's problems.