Andhra Pradesh - Guntur   

Endless wait for the precious liquid in Guntur

Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar

Women queuing up at a water tanker in Kothapet in Guntur on Monday. —

GUNTUR: For most residents of new extension areas like L.R. Colony, K.V.P Colony and I.P.D Colony, the endless wait for water continues even in scorching heat of mid-May. This ordeal continues for the residents throughout the year, but gets severe during summer. The city has only 76 million litres per day (MLD) of water against a daily demand ranging between 90 MLD and 110 MLD.

Last week, the city witnessed some unusual scenes. Women, armed with empty vessels, staged a ‘rasta roko’ and blocked the traffic on the Ponnur Road for over two hours on Friday. Irate residents of Netaji Nagar locked up deputy executive engineer and assistant engineer in the library, protesting against erratic water supply in April. Residents in Old Guntur protested against contaminated water being supplied. “We get drinking water for just half an hour from the only public tap in this colony. Not a day passes without the scramble for a vessel of water,” rues Swarna Varalaksmi of Anandapet.

On top of it, Guntur-II MLA Tadisetty Venkat Rao on Sunday gave a 100-hour ultimatum to the corporation officials to resolve the water crisis and threatened to lay siege to the GMC building if it was not resolved. Summer is a testing time for a growing city that lacks a perennial source of water.

The city normally draws water from the Guntur Channel. In summer, it draws water from the Prakasam Barrage through a 30-year-old pipeline through Mangalagiri, from which water is pumped to feed the 45 MLD filtration plant at Takkelapadu. This apart, 27 MLD is drawn from the summer storage tank at Sangam Jagarlamudi and 4 MLD from Vengalayapalem reservoir.

Over dependence on electricity with its shortcomings in the form of short circuits and tripping of high- power motors causes many a problem. Frequent leakage in raw water pipeline adds to the woes. Instead of one pipeline carrying water from the filtration plant at Takkelapadu to Manipuram, from where Nehru Nagar and BR Stadium reservoirs are fed, the corporation could lay another pipeline directly to feed BR Stadium reservoir to meet the demand in the Old Town area, feel experts. This project cost some Rs.1.5 crores. The rapid growth of extension colonies has put enormous pressure on water supply and has forced the residents to depend entirely on tankers. For people living on relatively higher planes like Gujjangundla, continuous water supply has turned a dream. The Over Head Service Reservoir gets the supply of water at the end of a chain of reservoirs. The Guntur Municipal Corporation has put in place a summer action plan to tackle the crisis. The main features of the plan are, taking up pump and motor repairs at the High Level Reservoir and at various reservoirs, carrying out repairs at Sangam Jagarlamudi at a cost of Rs.18.55 lakhs, repair works at Takkelapadu filtration plant at a cost of Rs.44 lakhs, making available spares and parts of motors in case of emergency, decentralisation of tankers and bore-well material distribution. “The GMC has taken up works at an estimated cost of Rs.1.21 crores as part of the summer action plan. We are doing our best to ensure continuous and quality water supply to all parts. A few colonies in extension areas deserve a long-term plan. The comprehensive drinking water project, which will be launched within a year, will address all problems,” Municipal Commissioner Siddhartha Jain told The Hindu.

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