Hyderabad: The Telangana state government has pressed the panic button over the drinking water crisis in all districts even before summer has fully set in.
With ground water levels depleting to record levels and borewells drying up, the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development department has brought to the notice of the government that there is no option but to supply water through water tankers by spending Rs 300 crore in the summer.
Among the districts, Karimnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad and Ranga Reddy are the worst affected.
Consecutive droughts for the last two years are said to be the reason for all the districts reeling under unprecedented water crisis even before the summer has begun.
Officials of PR&RD said Telangana had not witnessed such a grave water crisis in the last 10 years and the situation would only become worse in the coming five-six months.
“The failure of the monsoon for two years has led to severe drought conditions in the state. This has resulted in ground water levels depleting to record levels. All the borewells in the districts have dried up. They need to be re-drilled by hundreds of feet to reach water. The situation is alarming in a majority of the villages in the state,” said a senior official of PR & RD.
As per reports available with the department, more than 10,000 villages in nine districts have been facing the worst-ever water crisis. Over 18,000 borewells have become defunct with ground water levels depleting and they need to be re-drilled.
Thousands of villages that are dependent on Godavari, Maneru, Manjeera and Krishna rivers are reeling under water shortage with the levels in the irrigation projects touching dead-storage levels.
As per the drought report submitted by the TS government to the Centre, there are no drought-hit mandals in Adilabad and Khammam but shockingly over 2,000 villages in these districts are facing a grave water crisis.
“We are exploring various options to tide over the crisis. Supplying water through tankers, re-drilling borewells and recharging borewells by removing slit are among them. We need to ensure water supply to half of the total villages in the state for the next six months through these measures. We need to spend Rs 300 crore for the purpose. We have already submitted proposals to the state government to this effect and funds will be released soon,” said Mr K.T. Rama Rao, the minister for P&RD.
He said 35,320 borewells needed to be re-drilled and recharged to get water. Out of 22,778 habitations/villages in nine districts, 14,818 are facing a severe water crisis.
Of them, 13,566 villages should be provided with water tankers every day. The department is thus planning to hire 11,750 private water tankers.
50 urban civic bodies cry for water
While the districts are reeling under a severe water crisis, the situation is no different in municipal corporations and municipalities as about 50 out of the 67 urban local bodies in the state are facing the same problem.
Water supplied to urban areas has come down by 55 per cent and the state government has sought financial assistance from the Centre to provide water via water tankers.
The situation is so bad that only eight out of the 67 municipalities are being supplied water daily.
“Daily water supply is being done in Gajwel, Siddipet, Sangareddy, Siricilla, Jangoan, Nirmal, Nizamabad and Sattupally. Even in these municipalities, the quantity has been reduced by more than half. The other municipalities are receiving water once in three or five days . This is dependent on the availability of water from both surface and power bores,” said an official of MAUD.
MAUD officials said normally they used to depend on the Irrigation department to release water from irrigation projects and rivers to fill nearby water tanks and other surface water sources during summer, but this time there is no such scope because all projects have either touched dead storage levels or have dried up completely.
“The Irrigation department has ruled out the possibility of releasing any water from projects or rivers to meet the water needs of urban local bodies. We have to entirely depend on borewells this summer,” official said.
Though officials had started imposing cuts on the quantity of water supplied from September last year, there is no improvement in the situation due to failure of the monsoon for the second consecutive year.
Mandamarri and Badangpet municipalities are the worst affected with water being supplied just once in a week.
