Water from KC canal deemed unfit to drink

KURNOOL: Kurnool-Kakapo canal (KC canal) which passes through the Kurnool city is now made unfit for drinking water purpose. Release of water through KC canal by successive governments was a futile exercise as there is no channel for the free flow of water since it is littered with plastic bottles, construction waste and tonnes of garbage on its course throughout the city.

While technically irrigation department is supposed to look after the maintenance of the canal, they abandoned their duties and left it to decay. Keeping in view the potential use in solving the drinking water problem, the Kurnool Municipal Corporation (KMC) Commissioner C.B. Harinath Reddy volunteered the cleaning work during the month of September.

“We have limited funds, unless the irrigation department and other stakeholders join their hands with us, we alone cannot free KC canal from the debris,” he said.
About 100 colonies were located on the either sides of the KC canal in Kurnool. About 6.5 lakh people live in this city. Mr Harnath Reddy while explaining the operational difficulties, said that the storm and waste water merge into KC canal through open drains. Last year, their staff cleaned it and steps are being taken to clean it again in the coming week days. They are also taking measures to create awareness among the people by conducting clean-KC canal campaign, the commissioner said.

KC Canal engineering department said that they have no special funds to maintain the cleanliness of canal. Pamidi Subhash Gowd, a  government teacher and a resident of Devanagar, pointed out that, “Several residential areas of the city dump the waste and leave the drain water into the canal and some of the hotels are regularly releasing dirty water into the canal. In fact, a few people are using banks of the canal to attend nature calls. The situation is worse during rainy season as this dirty water splashes onto the moving vehicles.”

“We need to cover our noses inside the temple. Due to the stench, we cannot even have prasadams as it causes nausea at times,” H. Sunitha, a visitor of Ganesh temple located in the banks of KC canal. Brief history and its Purpose: Kurnool Cuddappah Canal popularly known as KC Canal is an irrigation canal located in Kurnool and Kadapa districts. It was constructed between 1863 and 1870 as an irrigation and navigation canal. It starts from the Sunkesula barrage located on the Tungabhadra River in Kurnool mandal and it has passed total 306 kilo meters of long length in both districts. The navigation system was abandoned during 1933 and the canal continued to be a major irrigation source. Actually it irrigates nearly 1,70,000 acres with 40 TMC of water utilization from the Krishna River, but now it has no able to supply of water for farmers even half of the acres.