Severe drinking water problem is in store for this municipal town, in summer as its water sources such as Pedda Cheruvu is fast drying up and the Godavari Drinking Water Project has been partially completed.
This commercial town with over a lakh population also has huge floating population. Since it is located in a dry area where rainfall is normally scanty it has perennial drinking water problem. To mitigate this problem the Congress Government following a request from the then Minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir, had taken up the Godavari Water Scheme in 2008 with an outlay of Rs.140 crore to lift water from the river at Jalalpur in Balkonda mandal. Now with the scheme being partially completed and the pipelines yet to be laid , the water problem is all set to continue this year too and also in the coming years. A huge pipeline was laid from the source point to the town covering a distance of 73 kilometres and for the first time water was given to residents about one and a half year ago.
However, there have been allegations that the pipelines were laid in areas where the ruling party leaders resided and most of the areas including Vidyanagar, NGOs’ Colony, Vivekananda Colony and Housing Board Colony remained uncovered, leaving the residents in despair. To ensure sufficient water to its residents, the town needs 10 million litres per day , but as of now the municipality is able to provide just 6 million litres per day from various sources. If the Pedda Cheruvu goes dry in the days to come the problem would get compounded, according to C. Gopi, a resident of the town.
B. Pedda Veeraiah, an engineer working for the Mega Construction Company Limited, the contractors of the Godavari Water Scheme, said that the scheme was originally meant to provide drinking water to 500 habitations in Sadasivanagar, Kamareddy, Machareddy, Domakonda, Biknoor and Tadwai mandals, but now it was supplying only to Kamareddy town.
“Works costing another Rs.20 crore are pending and if they were to be completed another 40 villages could be given drinking water. Construction of overhead tanks and filter beds at Mallannagutta at Markal were over. The company is responsible for the maintenance for two years,” he said.
Admitting that the problem could be severe if the pending schemes were not completed the municipal chairperson Ms. Sushma Pippiri, said that at present water was being supplied on alternate days for one hour and as many as 12 tankers were engaged to supply water in slum areas. More tankers would be pressed into service depending on the need, she said and added that there were six overhead tanks and two more were required in future.
