Casting a shadow on the city water supply situation, pumping of water has been resumed from the Yeleru reservoir after flow by gravity for a short period.
Water is being pumped from the reservoir since January to meet the needs of the city as well as industry.
The pumping is resorted to when the reservoir reaches dead storage level and water does not flow by gravity. That the measure was taken in April in 2015 and as early as January this year speaks of the poor water level in the reservoir, one of the major sources of water to the city.
The level crossed 71.5 meters in the second week of August and pumping was done away with and supply was made by gravitation for nearly a week, sources in GVMC told The Hindu .
However, with agriculture demand of 1000 cusecs in East Godavari district being met from the reservoir since the last week of July the level dropped.
Pumping of water again
As a result pumping of water has been resorted to again. For the past three days pumping is going on drawing between 50 and 70 cusecs of water. The water flows 156 km to the Kanithi Balancing Reservoir.
What is standing the city in good stead is the Kateru pumping scheme on the Godavari near Rajahmundry from which 150 cusecs is being pumped every day.
The water together caters to the city as well as the industry, the major demand coming from the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. The full reservoir level of Yeleru is 86.4 meters and even half the level is not reached till August owing to lack of rain in its catchment area resulting in poor inflows, officials say.
