Stating that no project has been taken up to improve water supply to the city during the last 25 years, Visakha United People’s Front demanded that a lift be constructed on the Left Main Canal (LMC) of the Polvaram project to meet the growing needs.
The Government had already agreed to take up the lift project at Purushottapatnam but should constitute a task force to pursue it and bring 23.44 tmc feet of water to the city by March 2017, Front Chairman K.S. Chalam and retired Chief Engineer S. Satyanarayana told a press conference on Wednesday.
They said that the Lift scheme on Pattiseema was completed in six months spending Rs.1,600 crore and the same urgency of purpose should be shown on meeting the needs of the city. Mr. Satyanarayana said that only six pumps had to be erected and it would cost a mere Rs.200 crore.
Stressing the importance of taking up the lift, Mr. Satyanarayana said that against a total demand of 400 MGD the presently available water from all sources was a mere 120 MGD. Once the LMC was completed, Yeleru reservoir constructed to meet the Steel Plant demand and water from Raiwada could be used for irrigation. Even the Bachawat Award of 1980 had allocated 23.44 tmc feet of water from Godavari to meet the water needs of the city, he recalled.
With water being drawn from dead storage of Yeleru reservoir now and with its catering to the irrigation demand the situation would be critical in March when agriculture demand would peak, Mr. Satyanarayana cautioned.
Prof. Chalam wanted priority to be given to locations where poorer sections lived in the contingency plan for the summer. The State Government should also take up restoration of 37,000 tanks in North Andhra to prevent migration from villages.
He congratulated the district administration and the Government on successfully holding the IFR putting the city on international map. CPI-M city secretary B. Ganga Rao was present.
