What could be termed as a herculean task, the officials are trying to pump water from Nallavagu to Narayankhed constituency headquarters where water scarcity is at alarming levels.
After struggling for about a week, officials of the Rural Water Supply (RWS) Department were able to dig a trench in Nallavagu. The trench is 15 feet deep, eight feet in width and 10 feet long. It is three feet long outside the water body.
The digging was completed in the water body to the nearby connecting road from where a pipeline already passes. The alignment works were taken up on Sunday and it is expected to be completed in a day or two.
The officials have also applied for separate power connection to run the pumping system, and it was stated that the power supply would be made available in a week.
As officials of the RWS have already kept a 15 HP motor ready, they are preparing for a trail run next week with a hope that by that time all the works would be completed. Order was placed for 20 HP motor which would be delivered in the next few weeks.
Though the officials were confident that they would be able to pump water for Narayanakhed town, they were facing the problem of ‘reverse pumping’ as they were trying to use existing pipelines which were once used to pump water from Narayanakhed to other residential localities on the way to Nallavagu. For the record, when the water is being supplied from one area to another area, the diameter of the pipe gets decreased from the starting point to the ending point for the required pressure for flow of water.
Any change in pressure would adversely impact the motor as well as the power system. In such circumstances, the officials are trying to find a way out to address the problem. “We may lay a new pipeline for about 670 metres, if necessary, to deal with the problem. We are sure that we can overcome the problem and go for trail run in the next one week,” M. Rajaratnam, Divisional Executive Engineer, RWS, told The Hindu .
