GUNTUR: With the onset of summer season, officials of the Rural Water Supply Department (RWS) in the erstwhile Guntur district have set a goal to provide 15 litres of water per day to every person in rural areas. Besides borewells, the main source of water for people during summer are ponds. There are 360 ponds in the erstwhile district, of which 19 are 90 per cent filled, 148 have 75 per cent capacity and 165 ponds are 50 per cent filled.
Officials of the water resources department have released water from the Nagarjuna Sagar project from April 15. Further, water would be released to Buggavagu and Nagarjuna Sagar right canal through which water will be supplied to crops and utilised for consumption purposes.
Released at a rate of over 68,000 cusecs, the water will be released from Nagarjuna Sagar to the project from April 15 to 23 and over 54,000 cusecs of water will be released from Buggavagu canal to crops and ponds from April 17 to 25.
The RWS officials in coordination with the health, irrigation, and Panchayat Raj departments have taken precautionary measures to store water in the ponds at full capacity. Officials have also identified the villages which have no access to the ponds and prepared proposals to provide water to them through tankers.
Authorities are confident that people will not face water scarcity, even if rains are delayed in June. However, they have urged the people use water sparingly. Meanwhile, Guntur Municipal Corporation (GMC) commissioner Keerthi Chekuri instructed the engineering department officials to prepare an action plan to ensure continuous water supply to the citizens. She held a review meeting on the implementation of the summer action plan on Thursday.
Directing the officials to regularly inspect pipeline leaks, the civic body chief asked them to collect samples of water every day and send it for testing to ensure safe drinking water is supplied to the citizens.