Eleven persons, including children, died in the district in the last 15 days due to water-borne diseases and viral fevers.
The people in Indravelli, Jainoor, Sirpur, Narnoor, Utnoor, Asifabad and rural areas in Kotapalli mandal are facing scarcity of potable water as open wells and tanks in the areas have been contaminated by flood water.
Poor sanitation, lack of transportation and chlorination further worsened the situation, forcing the locals to depend on hand pumps for drinking water. However, the special officers appointed by the government are too busy handling their departmental works.
Rajiv Vidya Mission (RVM) project director Viswanath Rao, who was appointed special officer of Narnoor mandal, reportedly did not visit any village in the mandal over the last six months. The other district-level officers, including Kotilingam and Sankariah, too failed to inspect the affected villages because of which the panchayat staff delayed carrying out the maintenance works like cleaning tanks and chlorination of water.
The deceased are K Baparao(6) and K Lachu (1), both brothers and native of Kolamguda village in Narnoor mandal, Mongorao(40) of Narnoor mandal, J Ramesh (22) and Siddam Abhiman (18) of Kotapalli mandal, Hirra Kumra Katti (13) of Indravelli mandal, Attram Raju (50) of Lingapur village and Attram Marubai (36) of Kasipet mandal, Sidam Jyothi (12) of Narnoor mandal, Gayatri(17) of Tiryani mandal, Prameela (52) of Talmadugu mandal, Someshwari (1).