Soon, Hindupur to get drinking water daily

Hindupur (Anantapur): The Rs 194 crore drinking water project aimed at solving the three-decade-old drinking water problem is all set for inauguration and supplying of drinking water on a daily basis to more than 1 lakh town population.

Already 99 per cent of works including laying of pipelines, construction of over-head tanks and other related works have been completed except for minor works like linking the storage water tanks to households.

The town had been depending upon only groundwater as bores drying down and becoming defunct due to depletion of groundwater levels, the town population had been experiencing a hard time The town had been depending upon tankers water supplied mostly by private water suppliers, who used to sell water making a lot of money.

Even though, the Hindupur constituency was once represented by no less a person as the then chief minister of AP late N T Rama Rao, he also did not do much to solve the drinking water problem.

The sitting MLA N Balakrishna is credited with the formulation of the drinking water project and releasing of funds by caretaker Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. Although he made a late intervention, yet he remains as the only MLA, who did something in this regard. This scheme wipes away all criticism against MLA Balakrishna at one go despite his non-availability to people during the past 5 years.

Municipal Commissioner Mallikharjuna told The Hans India that the project entails diversion of PABR water to Gollapalle and from there to Hindupur. Since there is poor supply to PABR dam from the Tungabhadra canal, water could not be supplied to Hindupur. Presently, out of the required 15 Million Litres a Day (MLD), only 5 MLD was available to meet the drinking water requirements of the town. Now, 35 MLD water per day can be drawn from Gollapalle reservoir every day, which means the town would have more than sufficient water and drinking water will be supplied on a daily basis.

Overhead tanks had already been constructed throughout the town for storage of Gollapalle water. The town with a population of 1.5 lakh and 38 municipal wards has 17,000 tap connections. A target to increase 2,000 tap connections in 100 days has been fixed to ensure that every house in the town has a tap connection.

Already, 800 new tap connections have been given. The water project will become a reality in 2 months. Krishna water has been brought to Gollapalle Reservoir basically for Kia Motors project, but supplying of Krishna water from Gollapalle to Hindupur had been included in the project. Pipelines have already been laid from the reservoir to Hindupur.

In 2 months, people are actually going to benefit from the scheme as every household would get water through pipelines.