Jalalpur water scheme fails to serve the purpose

The scheme that’s expected to supply water to 131 villages has been partially non-functional

The Jalalpur drinking water scheme built at a cost of Rs. 63 crore to provide filtered Godavari water to 131 villages in Balkonda and Armoor Assembly constituencies has failed to serve its purpose.

It has not been catering to the drinking water needs of even 50 per cent of the villages.

The scheme was launched as the CPWS for which the foundation stone was laid by the then Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterji on July 14, 2008 and was completed in a stipulated time. Over 200-km length pipeline up to the remotest Manala village in Kammarpally mandal was laid to supply safe drinking water.

Considered the lifeline of both the Assembly constituencies, the scheme is of the same kind as Siddipet water scheme built to draw water from the Lower Manair Dam in Karimnagar district.

While the Siddipet scheme is reportedly functioning well supplying water to 145 villages, the scheme in question has been plagued with several problems.

Frequent interruptions in power supply, leakages in pipelines and certain other technical problems have rendered the water scheme partially non-functional. Overhead tanks and pump houses were also constructed in the villages in Nandipet, Armoor, Balkonda, Morthad and Kammarpally mandals where water was to be supplied.

“When I represented Balkonda constituency, I used to supervise the scheme from time to time. It fails to serve the full purpose due to gross negligence of the officials concerned and elected representatives. It’s a scheme that is useful in severe drought conditions. I have already fulfilled the twin purposes of giving water to one lakh acres each in Balkonda and Armoor constituencies and safe drinking water to all the villages which the present Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is dreaming of now,” says K.R. Suresh Reddy, former Assembly Speaker of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.

According to Battu Sudarshan, supervisor of the Jalalpur filter beds, 31 tmcft of water is drawn from the Godavari every year to provide drinking water to 131 villages.

Owing to overload on the electric sub-station set up exclusively for the scheme, power goes off several times in a day creating troubles in water supply, he says.

Congress leader T. Mohan Reddy, who hails from Manala village, says his village has never got water from the scheme ever since it had come into being.

“It can run perfectly if there is power supply round the clock and that won’t be possible in near future,” he adds.