Water crisis stares at Ongole as summer storage tanks run dry

Drinking water being released only once in three days now

Bleak scenario: A scene at the second summer storage tank in Ongole.

Ongole is staring at a full-blown water crisis, with two summer storage tanks running dry — prompting authorities to start tapping into the dead storage of the Ramatheertham balancing reservoir to meet the drinking water needs of the town.

The water crisis comes even as the Nagarjunasagar reservoir reported a water surplus in the last monsoon.

Authorities are drawing 50 cusecs of water from the dead storage of the Ramatheertham reservoir as the present water availability will barely last another few days.

Dipping levels

While the water availability in the first summer storage tank was only 300 million litres as against the full level of 1,950 million litres, the second storage tank which has a capacity of 3,850 million litres has ran completely dry.

“We have appraised our higher-ups about the situation and water replenishment to Ramatheertham can be expected during this week,” Municipal Engineer D. Sundarama Reddy told

The Hindu . The water release to the two tanks will be stepped up to 150 cusecs as and when the Ramatheertham reservoir gets its quota of Krishna water and the two tanks will be filled to the brim so that the civic body will not face any problems in supply of drinking water till September when fresh replenishment can be expected, he added.

Projects held up

Presently, drinking water is supplied to residents once in three days and 30% of the areas coming under the Corporation remain uncovered by pipelines, while the ₹163 crore project to lay pipes to augment drinking water supply by up to 1 tmc water from Gundalakamma reservoir is progressing at a snail’s pace due to the delay in release of funds by the Union and State Governments.

Prakasam district being in the tail-end of Nagarjunasagar Right Bank Canal irrigation system has been unable to realise its full quota of Krishna water thanks to diversion of water by upper riparian districts.

Though the district has been earmarked 53 tmcft of Krishna water for this year, only 23 tmcft of water had been realised so far, Communist Party of India (Marxist) East Prakasam secretary P. Anjaneyulu says, adding that at least 10 tmcft of water should be released to meet the drinking and irrigation water needs of the district till March.