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Telangana Govt admits to severe drought
Panchayat Raj Minister K Taraka Rama Rao on Sunday admitted that Telangana State was reeling under severe drought conditions. Replying to a question raised by MLA Puvvada Ajay Kumar during question hour in Legislative Assembly, the Minister admitted that the groundwater levels had fallen drastically across the State. He said severe drinking water crisis was prevailing in the entire State, especial
Hyderabad: Panchayat Raj Minister K Taraka Rama Rao on Sunday admitted that Telangana State was reeling under severe drought conditions. Replying to a question raised by MLA Puvvada Ajay Kumar during question hour in Legislative Assembly, the Minister admitted that the groundwater levels had fallen drastically across the State. He said severe drinking water crisis was prevailing in the entire State, especially in rural areas.
Due to the prevailing drought conditions, fodder is not available to cattle and there is drinking water shortage in some rural areas. The Minister said a contingency action plan-2016 under CRF has been prepared for Rs 310.61 crore for taking up immediate temporary measures like flushing, deepening of sources/hiring of private sources and transportation duly identifying 12,616 vulnerable habitations in 231 drought declared mandals.
Action plan for districts of Adilabad and Khammam, which are not declared as drought affected has been prepared for Rs 31.55 crore. An action plan under non-CRF has been prepared for Rs 217.24 crore for attending urgent nature of works like replacement of age old pumps/motor repairs/ replacement of old pipelines/ valves, etc.
Replying to questions on the quality-affected areas, the Minister said that out of total 24,802 rural habitations, as many as 1,342 habitations were receiving water which had fluoride, salinity, iron and nitrates. “There are 967 villages getting fluorine water, 192 villages getting saline water, 45 villages getting water with iron contents and 138 villages getting water with nitrate contents,” he said.
The Minister said that earlier water supply projects were based only on ground water and after depletion of groundwater, the quality of the water has decreased. “The quality of the ground water today is not meeting the WHO standards,” he said. He informed that government was looking at the surface water sources to provide drinking water connections in the state. “We are formulating water supply schemes based on perennial rivers and surface water sources in Krishna and Godavari basins, instead of depending on ground water,” he said.
