Srikakulam: Residents of sea coast villages deprived of drinking water

Srikakulam: Scarcity of safe drinking water is hitting residents of sea coast villages where fishermen population is more.

Lack of proper drinking water supply projects and polluted groundwater are reasons for scarcity. Prime reasons for contamination of groundwater in these villages are emissions from aqua-based and other industries and intrusion of seawater due to aquaculture ponds along the sea coast.

There are total 104 villages situated in 11 mandals Itchapuram, Kaviti, Sompeta, Mandasa, Vajrapukotturu, Santhabommali, Polaki, Gara, Srikakulam Rural, Etcherla and Ranastalam across the district.

In all these villages safe drinking water supply water projects are not in existence and people here are depending on borewells. But due to emissions indiscriminately released by various bio-marine, hatcheries, chemical and pharmaceuticals companies' groundwater is getting polluted in these villages.

In addition to it, indiscriminate digging and mining activities along the coast by various companies for different minerals and aquaculture ponds are the factors contributing to contamination of groundwater and turning saline. As a result, drinking water borewells turned unsafe and remained unused.

In Etcherla mandal, groundwater was polluted at D Matsyalesam, Rallapeta, Kotta Matsyalesam, Sivaji Dibbalapalem and Kotta Dibbalapalem villages. Groundwater was polluted due to emissions released indiscriminately by a bio-marine products company.

In these villages, water from 16 borewells was declared as unsafe for drinking by the Pollution Control Board (PCB), Rural Water Supply (RWS) department and water testing laboratory units located at Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam.