Water woes haunt several villages in Anantapur district

The shortage is so acute that residents in a few mandals are forced to take bath on alternate days

If you think rainy season solves all water shortages, it is time to reconsider that opinion for people in few mandals of Anantapur district can afford a bath only every alternate day.

The Gooty mandal along with the mandal headquarters is in the midst of an unprecedented water crisis with acute shortage of not just drinking water but also water for daily use.

In fact, the situation in the Gooty and the railway station area is so acute that the people are having to buy water they need for daily use.

“We are buying water at Rs. 500 per 1,000 litres and we have to use the water very carefully,” says a resident of the Gooty railway station area even as he added that they have to wait for drinking water which is supplied once every three days. A similar situation exists in the many villages of the Nambula Pulakunta mandal, including the mandal headquarters, where such a situation has been existing since the last summer.

Anantapur district, which faces a perennial shortage of water, faced a acute shortage of water the last summer with the rural water supply having to supply drinking water to more than sixty percent of the villages in the district by water tankers.

“The drinking water situation in the district will become even more critical in the days to come with the dwindling water allocation from the Tungabhadra dam and ever shrinking ground water levels,” said the convenor of ‘Voice of Ananta’, a civil society group formed to voice the concerns of the Anantapur district.

The district requires around 13 tmc of water to feed the over 40 lakh population in the district.

If the situation persists with no supplement of surface water, the situation is set to get worse in the near future.