Water scarcity looms large

Vijayawada: Water scarcity remains a big problem in both Vijayawada and Guntur cities for the coming summer. The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation has initiated several measures under Summer Action Plan to provide drinking water to the citizens at an estimated cost of Rs 8 crore.

The corporation has been working on drilling new borewells at select areas and increasing the capacity of providing water from Krishna River, said VMC Mayor K. Sridhar. He explained that they sent proposals to the state government with an estimated cost of Rs 8 crore to meet the water needs of this summer.

He said that the corporation officials have identified the water scarcity areas based on previous experience and will focus mostly on these colonies and wards.

He said that the VMC would drill bore-wells where the pipeline water supply is not sufficient. So far the VMC has been supplying about 100 MLD of water per day to the residents and commercial users in the city. Through the Summer Action Plan, the VMC targeted to provide 200 MLD of water per day in Vijayawada city, informed commissioner G. Veerapandian.

Mr Veerapandian said that they created Ward Squads to effectively address water problems in the coming summer for each and every ward in the city.

He explained that they would allocate a separate telephone number and a control room for this summer. He said that all complaints received from the residents would be addressed by this control through the squads.

On the other hand, the VMC is going to install two-50 HP pumpsets to extract water from Kris-hna River to meet the drinking water needs, stated VMC chief engineer M.A. Shukoor.

Mr Veerapandian observed that they did not receive significant number of complaints in the previous year and hoped that they would not receive any complaint in this coming summer from the residents. He said that the action plan could address most of the water problems before they emerge.