In a major relief to the people of Prakasam district, release of the Krishna water from the Nagarjunasagar dam has begun as severe drinking water shortage gripped the drought-hit district.
The district, which has been allotted six tmcft of the Krishna water, received 2,600 cusecs of water in the Jawahar main canal on Monday, Irrigation Superintending Engineer O. Sarada Devi told The Hindu after supervising the release of water.
The release, including 1,200 cusecs in the Addanki Branch Canal (ABC), would be maintained for the next 19 days to first fill up 184 notified and 107
non-notified drinking water tanks with 3.8 tmcft of water to cater to the needs of two lakh people, before providing wetting to standing crops in 1.77 lakh acres in the district, the Supertintending Engineer added.
Drinking water crisis
The district faced a drinking water crisis following severe drought in 46 of the 56 mandals for the third consecutive year with about 30% of the water sources drying up, including 6,741 hand pumps, 127 borewells and 586 deep borewells by February itself, said Rural Water Supply In-charge Superintending Engineer Mardhan Ali.
“More drinking water sources, including 6,286 hand pumps, are expected to dry up especially in the western parts of the district where people are mainly dependent upon ground water which is available only at a depth of 700 to 800 ft,” he explained.
Tanker water supply
Currently, 1,750 trips by water tankers were being arranged for 182 habitations in 19 mandals to cover 3.10 lakh people and the number of trips might go up to 2,800 in a couple of months, he added. The district administration had spent ₹7.34 crore for flushing and deepening of borewells and sought another ₹20.26 crore to pull on till the onset of the Southwest Monsoon in June, Mr. Mardhan Ali said. People facing problems in getting safe drinking water could call toll-free no. 1077, he added.
