Nellore: Contingency plan set for water

Nellore: In view of the falling water reserves in Somasila and Kandaleru projects and tanks across the Nellore region, district administration has been readying contingency plan well before the onset of summer to deal with any drinking water problem that could arise over the district.

As a first step, APSPDCL and Transco officials have been asked to upgrade the transformers in their substations to handle the additional load during summer to ensure uninterrupted power supply for pumping water wherever necessary. APSPDCL has been told to upgrade 5MVA transformers to 8 MVA in all the 33/11 KV substations while Transco has been directed to replace the 31.5 MVA transformers with 50 MVA in their 132 KV/220KV substations to prevent power shutdowns due to tripping.

Rural Water Supply and Irrigation officials have been given time till February 15 to identify possible sources of water additionally both under the control of private parties and and government, in rural as well as urban areas that can be used. Administration also sought funds for drawing water through lift system from Kandaleru dam to address the water needs of Venkatagiri, Srikalahasthi and Tirupati towns similar to last year at an estimated cost of Rs 22 crore.

At the instance of the District Collector R. Muthyala Raju, proposals are being sent to the government for sanctioning of funds to draw water from Kandaleru in the summer months. Rural Water Supply department has been directed to carry out repairs to bore wells that are not in use and to deepen them wherever necessary after the completion of current crop season.

Speaking to this newspaper, the collector said they have cleared pending bills pertaining to transportation of water and other contingency expenses of last year with Rs 4.96 crore released by the government recently.

He added that they are holding review meetings every Wednesday to gear up the departments concerned such as RWS, electricity and irrigation to mitigate water issues.