VIJAYAWADA: Soaring temperature coupled with acute drinking water shortage are haunting the public in major municipal towns in Krishna district, including Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC), which is no exception as some of its localities are facing drinking water crisis at the very beginning of the summer.
Laxity on the part of the officials in taking necessary precautionary measures to overcome the problem resulted in hardships to the people. The prevailing ground reality exposes the falsity of the tall claims made by the officials over supplying adequate drinking water during summer in Krishna district. For instance, drinking water problem has been haunting the major municipalities such as Avanigadda, Tiruvuru, Mylavaram, Vissannapeta, Chatrai and Pedana. People are showing exceptional patience in fetching water from every possible source.
However, those, especially the elderly people, who are not in a position to cover miles are forced to purchase canned water to quench their thirst. With no option left, villagers of V Kothapalli in Koduru mandal are forced to use the water from ponds where water hyacinths grow and which are also the sources of water for the animals and thereby are prone to contamination. “Usually during summer months, voluntary organisations and political parties used to supply drinking water through tankers, but this time the Model Code of Conduct is playing a spoilsport to their hopes. With this, majority of the rural folk are urging the administration to ensure drinking water supply through tankers or else launch a massive drive to clean the ponds and make them accessible for the public to meet their drinking water needs,” said K Veerabhadraiah, a resident of Koduru village.
Residents of a few villages in Avanigadda mandal are unable to drink water from borewells as it had become saline due to increase in the number of farmers converting their agricultural lands into aqua ponds.
Locals said they recently notified the district administration about it but no action has been initiated so far.