Steps taken to tide over water crisis in Anantapur

Anantapur: With the advent of summer season, drinking water problems in certain water scarcity villages come to the fore. The district administration is taking all steps to ensure that no village suffer during summer when ground water levels reach rock bottom stage.

Poor rainfall, low groundwater levels and absence of drinking water sources have compelled the people of 69 villages in 10 mandals to virtually depend on water transportation from external sources by the Panchayath Raj Rural Water Supply (RWS) department of the government. These villages are purely depending on daily water transportation by the RWS.

However, due to the government's serious efforts in this direction, the number of villages depending upon water transportation has been brought down to 69 villages from 350 villages.

These villages are spread over in Cheyedu, Nallacheruvu, Tanakal, Putlur, Yellanur, Vidapanakal, Kulakuntla and Anantapur mandals. "Our wait for the water tankers robs us of our time. We often set aside all other household chores and wait for hours together for the tanker. For us, clean water is dearer than food and work as consumption of unprotected water had made us sick," say the villagers of SC Colony in Vidapanakal mandal. Women engaging in wordy duels and quarrelling over a pot of water is a common sight in rural habitations. Parvathi, a woman carrying her baby in her arms at Balapuram in Putlur, laments that life had become an ordeal waiting for getting rationed tank water. "I do not go for work sometimes as I will miss my pot of drinking water," she says.

Other mandals including Kalyandurg, Dharmavaram, Amadaguru, Obuladevacheruvu and Bukkapatnam also have drinking water problems though not acute as the above mentioned 10 mandals.

Nagamani, a woman agriculture labourer of Cheyedu bemoans that even after six decades of independence, drinking water is a scarce commodity. Nagamani says that she heard of new water scheme for her village sanctioned by the government but do not know how long the government takes to execute the scheme, until then the ordeal for water continues. Another resident of Cheyedu village Muthyala Reddy says that the village depend on transported water all the 365 days.

Sources in the Rural Water Supply (RWS) told The Hans India that last year, the water problem was precarious in the district with more than 350 villages under the grip of water scarcity. The works taken up include deepening of bores, hiring of agriculture bore-wells of farmers and linking of villages to CPW water sources by boosting pipeline infrastructure are yielding results.

Also, works worth Rs 45 crores were taken up including repairing of defunct bores, extension of pipelines, setting up of RO treatment plants. Permanent measures are being initiated to rid the problem in villages. Official sources revealed that the State government is contemplating to take up a massive drinking water project for Anantapur district with funding from international agencies.