iracles do happen and Medak district has been a witness to them for the past few weeks. Water source was found underneath the sand layers (spring wells) much to the relief of the officials and this water is quenching the thirst of about 31,000 people.
After the water sources at Borancha, Gudur and Shapur irrigation supply schemes dried up, some officials thought of looking for alternate sources. An official of the Rural Water Supply (RWS) suggested removing sand layers at these projects stating that there could be a chance of finding water and it proved successful. For the past ten weeks water is oozing from the sand, making it easy for the officials to meet the drinking water requirement in about 57 habitations.
While 4,500 litres of water per minute (LPM) is being pumped from Gudur project for about seven to eight hours every day, it is 1,400 (LPM) each at Shapur and Borancha with 16 to 18 hours and five to six hours respectively.
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The sand layers are being removed for about 15 feet in depth. Now the officials are busy in the finding out new water sources that can meet the needs of the people till the summer gets over.
Borancha scheme covers five villages with a population of 6,000, Gudur scheme takes care of 28 villages with a population of 11,000 and under Shapur scheme meets the water needs of 24 villages with about 14,000 population. The RWS officials are pumping as much as 28 lakh litres of water every day.
However the water supply is done on alternate days at several places so that there wouldn’t be much problem in summer.
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“Luckily, we are able to get water beneath the sand layers and every day few lakh litres of water is oozing in all these three places though it is little less at Borancha. We wish to overcome water woes in summer through these schemes but we are not sure how long we could manage,” M. Rajaratnam, Deputy Executive Engineer, RWS, told The Hindu.
Water is being supplied to the households on alternate days at several places