Vijayawada: Poor maintenance of water tanks and overhead tanks have resulted in water contamination in hundreds of villages in Krishna district. This has caused ill-health and also deaths, but officials of Rural Water Scheme (RWS), panchayat raj department and district medical and health department seem least bothered.
As per official reports, there are nearly 360 RWS water tanks and 35 schemes in Krishna district. But officials have failed to maintain the water quality. The government has introduced several drinking water schemes and allotted funds on a per head basis under various schemes but local bodies are not implementing steps to purify water.
According to official data, three to five incidents have been reported every season for the last several years. A large number of inhabitants in Kothamajeru and Guduru villages fell sick in the last two days. The people of Jujjuvaram and Pasumarru villages faced similar problem last year. A person died in Hanuman-junction mandal six months ago.
A water quality monitoring laboratory pinned water contamination as the reason behind the Kottamajeru incident, which saw one person dead and hundreds falling sick. The laboratory has submitted the report to government. The medical and health department have framed several guidelines for water purification.
The other government departments like pancha-yat raj and zilla parishad also provide funds for purified water supply. As per 13th Finance Commission recommendations, Rs 650 should be allotted for each hand pump while Rs 80 per each head for all villages under RWS scheme.
According to officials, a village with an average population of 10,000 should spent almost Rs 10 lakhs for chlorination and purification works every year. The health department also releases Rs 10,000 for each village. As per health department norms, chlorination should be completed every day and 0.22 Parts Per Million (PPM) should be in water after chlorination said additional deputy director P.V.L.N. Sastry.
He said the panchayat raj staff should conduct chlorination under supervision of medical health department. However, this is hardly done. Moreover, overhead tanks should be chlorinated weekly once, said RWS former official Padmanabha Rao. An official, on condition of anonymity, said funds have been misused for the last several years.
