Water crisis rocks Guntur citizens

Guntur: Water woes and drainage complaints from Guntur citizens poured in the Dial Your Commissioner service that restarted on Monday after a gap of three months. Guntur is currently reeling under severe water crisis. Though Guntur has installed capacity of 119.52 MLD with 25 reservoirs the actual supplies and utility is only 97 MLD. The population of Guntur is now around 10 lakh and residents depend on municipal supplied protected drinking water as borewell water is salty and unfit for consumption. Out of 22 complaints received on phone by Guntur Municipal Corporation commissioner P. Nagaveni, around 20 are related to non-supply of drinking water and overflowing drains. Ms Nagaveni said, “World Bank has sanctioned "

460 crore for constructing 18 more reservoirs and pipelines. It will take two years to complete the project. Around 42 MLD will be added. Till then the water issue will continue. We are arranging water tankers to supply water to those colonies that are facing severe water shortage.”

She added that only 10 per cent of the Guntur municipality spread over 51 square kilometres has underground drainage. “Around 90 per cent of the city has open drains. We are preparing project proposals for the underground drainage in the entire city. The revenue of GMC is Rs 40 crore through property tax. We need government assistance.”