ANANTAPUR: Penukonda, the summer capital of the Vijayanagar Empire, appears to have got pure and safe drinking water after many decades. The people here had never got fluoride-free water since Independence.
All this is thanks to Krishna water that was diverted through Handri Neeva Sujala Shravanthi phase-II that filled Gollapalli reservoir in Penukonda mandal and also flowed towards Madakasira Branch Canal, improving groundwater levels and reduced fluoride levels since six months.
KN Murthy, a veteran, recalled that they had to get drinking water through the grampanchayat pipeline which had borewells at the Sheep Farm area which had a depth of 450 foot. “We were drinking boiled water which causes a layer to appear in the vessel because of the fluoride for the past five decades. Now we get safe water which appears without fluorine and other saline content. At least our coming generations will be happy with healthy and safe drinking water through Krishna water from the HNSS project,” he said.
Previously Penukonda town got drinking water once in four days, but soon after Gollapalli reservoir was filled up with Krishna water, the borewells of surrounding areas along with a few deep wells got recharged for the past six months.
Now people living in Penukonda get pure water once in two days through the borewells dug at Gollapalli reservoir. Vijaykumar, teacher, observed they were able to get fluorine-free water. “We feel safe with drinking water being supplied by the civic body of Penukonda,” he said.
Not only in Penukonda but Krishna water has turned many parts of Anantapur district green even during peak summer. At least 50,000 borewells got recharged in the last two years in Anantapur district alone. Selling of animals to slaughter houses was coming down and animals in the forests got plenty of drinking water even in summer.
For the first time after independence, many villages and even urban parts of Anantapur get safe drinking water through Godavari-Krishna interlink. Hindupur town that was suffering from acute shortage of drinking water will soon get Krishna water as a special pipeline is being laid towards Hindupur municipality.
“We preserve rainy water for domestic purposes due to lack of water sources from the municipality,” Jahnavi, a youth from Housing Board area in Hindupur said.
Rural water supply superintendent engineer Mr Naik confidently said people were happy to get pure water. The department had confined itself to supplying water only for a few habitations during the recent summer.
