PARVATHIPURAM-MANYAM: Water crisis is looming over several villages of Parvathipuram-Manyam district even before the advent of peak summer.
The villagers of Chinabondapalli under Parvathipuram mandal are facing acute water shortage and are forced to collect water from pipeline leakages.
The villagers allege the negligence of officials as the cause of the water crisis in their region and have staged a protest, demanding them to conduct repairs to the water pipelines, which went in vain. Due to lack of potable water, the residents of the mandal are forced to walk kilometres to collect water from agricultural borewells. The water does not reach the overhead tank and leak at the village outskirts due to the condition of the pipelines. In desperation, the people of the village are collecting water from the pipe leakages.
On the other hand, the residents of Parvathipuram Municipality have been facing a severe water shortage due to the poor summer water action plan of the officials. Parvathipuram Municipality is a grade one municipality with nearly 60,000 population in the State. The municipality needs at least 8 MLD (millions of litre per day) water, However it gets only 5 MLD water from the infiltration wells from Thotapalli reservoir.
The municipal officials have been supplying water once or twice a week due to lack of sufficient water in the infiltration wells. On top of that, the water flow comes down owing to the water leakages. The current situation has left the denizens facing water shortages for household activities.
The municipality officials have arranged for water tankers although the unclear schedule of timings has left the people sacrificing their daily wages for water. Similarly, the municipality officials failed to announce the timings of drinking water release (piped water). The denizens allege the poor summer action plan of the civic officials. The water crisis has peaked in Janasakthi colony, Telakali Veedhi, Sairam colony, Bangaramma colony, and Gijaba colony, as the local residents are looking for alternative sources for drinking water in the town.
Speaking to TNIE, Appalanaidu of Chinabondapalli said, "Despite the ruling YSRC sarpanch and vice-MPP (Mandal Praja Parishad) in our village, the pipelines of the rural water supply scheme are in a dilapidated condition. Due to water leakages, we are struggling to find water for both drinking as well as for household necessities. The negligence of authorities has led to the water crisis in our village. They have completely ignored the pipeline leakages. We have been protesting for a solution to our water problem in various venues for the past six months. However, the officials are yet to take action. I appeal to the officials to clear the water crisis in our village.”