Water scarcity hits Vizianagaram

Vizianagaram: Before the arrival of summer, the district municipal authorities have totally failed to supply drinking water regularly to the people. Now the people are waiting for arrival of water tanks to their colonies and streets. Normally, every town, village and city face water scarcity during hot summer but this town is facing the tough situation in winter. The Vizianagaram town has 2 lakh population and it is getting water from Tatipudi reservoir through Mushidipalli pumping station.

As per the estimation, the town needs 36 million liters per day (MLD) to supply water daily. But due to unavailability of water in Gosthani river, the authorities are getting only 7 MLD from Nellimarla and supplying it to public. With this, the people are getting water only twice in a week from their municipal taps. The authorities are collecting water from tube wells and filling it in water tankers and sending them to colonies forcing the people wait for arrival of tankers. Some others are rushing to private water plants to purchase 20 litres of bottle by paying Rs 20. K Uma, a housewife of Natraj colony, said, “Ours is a large family and need to purchase four cans per day by paying Rs 80. So far we used to get municipal water but for the past few days the situation is different, and we need to wait for water tanker or go for private water traders.”

So far, the town is getting around 10 MLS of warter from Gosthani through Chinamushidipalli regulator but now the situation in Gosthani is pathetic and its totally dried-up. The water levels in Tatipudi has drastically come down and it is not able to supply water to this town. Tatipudi has only 271 feet of water level and it must be used for rabi season. Even the water from this reservoir is being supplied to Vizag municipal corporation. Though the Tatipudi is in Vizianagaram district, the water in the reservoir is not being supplied to this district and its supplied to Vizag.

Commissioner of Vizianagaram town K Venugopal said “We understood the alarming situation and we are planning to meet the demand. We will arrange some other water tankers and send them to colonies and streets. But the dipping water level in the reservoirs is the main reasons for this pathetic situation. But we will address the problem shortly. Right now, we are supplying water to 20 wards out of 44 by tankers and we will increase the number of vehicles and supply more water to people.”