VIJAYAWADA: Aimed at providing drinking water to residents, Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has sanctioned around 12,000 new drinking water tap connections between January and June this year. With this, drinking water supply is enhanced to 58 million gallons per day (MGD) from 52 MGD in 64 divisions (supplied till December 2020)
As per the information provided by the engineers at Dr KL Rao Head Water Works (HWW), the source point of water segregation for the city, the gross supply of water is 61.50 MGD to the residents that includes 45 MGD from HWW, 9 MGD from Gangireddula Dibba (Gunadala), 2.50 MGD from Ramalingeswara Nagar and 5 MGD from Borewells in Circle-3 on a daily basis for approximately 12 lakh residents (according to 2019). While distribution losses account for 3.5 MGD per day, the per capita consumption of water (per person) is 150 litres in the city.
VMC divisional engineer K Narayana Murthy told TNIE that the civic body has sanctioned the 12,000 new tap connections in Gadde Venkataramaiah Nagar, Rajiv Nagar VUDA Colony, Andhra Prabha Colony, Kabela area, Housing Board Colony and Patamata between January and June after considering the demand for the water supply from the residents.
Earlier, the drinking water supply to the respective areas was through water tankers and now with the installation of new tap connections, the residents are able to meet their needs. Also, the capacity of drinking water supply has been enhanced to 45 MGD per day from 40 MGD at the HWW by establishing a new water plant with 5 MGD capacity in January, Murthy said.
He said that drinking water supply is provided twice in a day for an one hour each in the morning and evening except in division number 4 (Gunadala Hill area) and division number 8 (Moghalrajpuram Hill area) where the supply is once in a day. When queried about the reason for increasing number of drinking water tap connections in the city, Narayana Murthy said Vijayawada has a total of 1,19,985 water tap connections (till December 2020) and 9,703 water meter connections. “We have provided 12,000 new connections after considering the demand from the residents,” he informed.