Harnessing water from 90 tanks in and around Visakhapatnam by restoring them to their original shape and de-silting and constructing bunds is a viable alternative to desalination that is prohibitively costly, chartered consulting civil engineer S. Gopala Sastry has said.
Reacting to the proposal of a desalination plant for meeting the increasing water needs of the city, he said in a statement here that if those who occupied tank-bunds and land-grabbers were evicted, paving the way for restoration of the tanks, water needs, even if the population touched 50 lakh, could be met covering Parawada, Pendurti and Sabbavaram mandals.
Soham Consultants of which Mr. Gopala Sastry is the chairman has already carried out a ‘minor and at-random' study on protection of water bodies for GVMC at a nominal fee of Rs.5 lakh and gave a 120-page report with an offer of carrying a more detailed study with designs, plans and estimates.
