The drinking water sources for Nandigama Municipality are not enough to meet the ever-increasing demand of the local body. People are forced to depend on the groundwater that has high fluoride content.
The Durga Nagar, DV Ramana Colony, B.C. Colony are worst-hit with water supplied only once in four days, while some other colonies get water every alternate day.
The municipality with a population of 45,000 has sources to store and supply about 15 lakh litres a day, but even that is waning with every passing day in the summer months.
Out of the two power bore-wells in Keesara one was not functioning for the past six months and has been repaired only a couple of days ago.
With scheduled power cuts of 7 hours a day in the town and longer hours at the source villages, the Municipality is unable to fill its overhead reservoirs and sumps at all the places.
The Municipality gets water from Munneru River through 2 power bore-wells. But during power cut times a stand-by 80 KVA generator is used to supply water from the sump, but even that was not working for the past six months. Municipal Commissioner Makineni Sambasiva Rao told The Hindu that he had ordered for repairs costing Rs.40,000.
Water was released on Friday for about an hour, but was not sufficient and there was no guarantee that it would be released for next three days, said a soda vendor Mujeeb.
He gets water from a mineral water plant in the town for his drinking and business purpose. The D.V. Raman Colony, which used to get daily supply for a long time also, was getting water only every alternate day as the pond from 1.2 lakh liters of water is drawn, was being desilted. On Saturday The Hindu team witnessed long queues in the DVR Colony close to the National Highway No.9 By-Pass Road. The District Administration was putting pressure on the Municipality to supply water everyday, but the local body did not have sufficient sources to supply.
