VIJAYAWADA: Despite copious inflows into Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar reservoirs as a result of heavy rains in the Godavari districts in the past week, several rural areas in the State continue to face severe drinking water shortage. Tankers make 4,254 trips to supply drinking water to 349 villages in Prakasam district every day.
“Prakasam saw a 40 per cent deficit in rainfall this year, and so the water supply hasn’t improved at all here and also in Nellore and Chittoor districts despite the peak of summer getting over a month and a half back. Prakasam is one of the worst-hit districts,” said Thota Prabhakar Rao, engineer-in-chief of Rural Water Services. Now, with water being released from the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir to its right canal, the situation in Darsi, Markapuram, and Yerragondapalem is improving.
Prakasam, which does not have any sizeable water resource of its own is largely dependent on groundwater. As there was less rain in the district, water tanks under RWS were left unfilled or semi-filled. “Given the shortage, we had to supply drinking water through tankers to more than 200 villages and the situation has not improved even today,” Prabhakar Rao observed. According to officials, groundwater levels in the coastal districts of the State is the lowest in Prakasam. As of Saturday, it stands at 18.91 metres below ground level, only slightly better than Chittoor’s 20.95 metres.
RWS operates 569 trips every day to 273 habitations in Chittoor and 341 trips to 77 villages in Nellore. As many as 51 villages in Kadapa district are being supplied drinking water in tankers making 171 trips every day. Thirty-seven villages in Guntur district bordering Prakasam too are given drinking water in tankers.
The RWS engineer-in-chief told TNIE the government had taken steps to improve infrastructure including constructing rain harvesting pits and check dams, but there still was a lot to be done. “However, when there is no rain, what can be done?” he said and added that water would be transported to affected villages in tankers until the situation improves.