Madanapalle town and surrounding areas are reeling under severe water problem with summer heat still persisting and plummeting of groundwater levels.
In spite of being upgraded as first grade municipality, this town with over 1.7 lakh population, excluding the outskirts, has been hit by water crisis since one-and-a-half decades.
The municipal authorities had arranged supply of water through water tankers to various wards, but not all were covered.
The political leaders of various parties had pressed the water tankers expecting votes, but the exercise was stopped as and when the municipal, Zilla Parishad and general elections were over.
Taking advantage of the water crisis, water business continues to thrive since February this year.
With groundwater table dipping to low levels, tankers are reaching out to neighbouring villages to draw water. In some of the wards, the civic authorities are undertaking water supply once in a week or ten days.
The public taps are witnessing heavy crowd round-the-clock, waiting for their turn once water is supplied. Despite repeated appeals from the public to supply sufficient number of water tankers, it is alleged that the response from the officials is not encouraging and the reasons are attributed to local politics.
The residents of municipal wards won by the YSRC in the recent municipal elections apprehend political harassment in future. Though a summer storage tank was grounded during the regime of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, it was shelved after his demise.
