Dry reservoirs leave Kakinada residents thirsty

Kakinada : The shortage of water in two reservoirs which cater the need of  five lakh  people of Kakinada city led to acute drinking water  problem for the second time in  a week.  Lack of advanced arrangements and laxity on the part of the officials concerned as the main reason for the crisis. 

It is said that this situation may continue for next two weeks till the desilting of canals is completed for the storage tank at Aratlakatta in Karapa mandal.  This has a resulted in drinking water shortage in many areas in the city, including in several municipal schools in I town area in the city.

Two reservoirs, Sambamurty reservoir at Samarla Kota and   Aratlakatta inKarapa mandal supply water to the smart city’s population. But the closure of irrigation canals for annual maintenance and lack of sufficient water reserves in the two storage tanks at Samarlakota and Aratlakatta said to have led to severe shortage of water.

But after reopening of canals a week ago, the situation is expected to improve but  it has not happened . The main reason cited for this is non-completion of desilting works in the  main water reservoir at Aratlakatta.  With this, the entire needs of the city have to be met from Sambamurty reservoir.

When contacted, Kakinada mayor  S Pavani  said on Friday that the situation  of drinking water supplies would improve by Friday evening or Saturday morning .

Municipal Corporation DE Satyanarayana Raju says that the supplies will return  to normalcy  by June 18. In the meantime, we are supplying  water to suburbs by tankers, he said. 

Kakinada rural MLA P Anantalakshmi said that the canal desilting works for full-fledged supply  of Godavari water to Aratlakatta (the area falls under Kakinada rural)  which were  to complete  by June 15 could not be completed . “Hence we sought another  15 days till the end of June.  We sought the permission of the district collector in this regard,” the MLA clarified.