AMC still fails to supply purified drinking water

ANANTAPUR: Anantapur Municipal Corporation authorities have been still unable to supply purified drinking water to people of Anantapur, but are justifying that  the muddy water will not harm the people.

Even as Anantapur has adequate drinking water allocation through the Tungabhadra high level main canal and Penna Ahobilum balancing reservoir storage point and separate storage point along with necessary systems to purify water at Muddalapuram in Kudair mandal. The purified drinking water is being supplied through a separate pipeline by filling nearby tanks in various localities.

In Rayalaseema, only the AMC has a drinking water facility throughout the year but the situation appears worse this season due to lack of proper measures by the civic authorities. Most of the areas in the corporation including connecting villages receive muddy water and are unable to drink it. “We are afraid of drinking the water and are purchasing from private purified plants for the past 15 days”, Krishnamma, a resident from Old Town area said.  She said that despite the assurance by municipal authorities they were not convinced.

The filtration plant was built with a capacity to purify 61 Million Litres per Day. But on an average of 41 MLD of water is being supplied towards all parts of corporation every day. Further the filtration point is located at a distance from Anantapur headquarters and lack of proper execution by authorities lead to poor quality of water.

 Experts found the civic authorities were unable to check out treatment levels as the usage of alum and chlorine were not up to required levels. Alum will purify water at various levels when the cakes are dipped in according to the quantity of water. For corporation, an average of 200 kgs of alum should be used but the staff were using less.

Collector S. Satyanarayana and urban legislator Ananta Venkatrami Reddy, who inspected the Muddalapuram water storage point found the purified drinking water was still muddy.

“The representatives in the Telugu Desam government spent time on their own disputes and rivalries but had never concentrated on public issues. Water problem is also of them,” Urban MLA Ananta Venkatrami Reddy alleged and added they were trying to rectify the situation.

Further, the 340 km-long old pipeline was replaced  and new connections were being provided to houses. As part of the new pipeline project, the civic authorities constructed 10 elevated service reservoir tanks in various parts of the AMC. Around five ELSR tanks were designed to store 1,000 litres while one tank could store 1,500 litres, two tanks were designed with capacity of 800 litres and two others with 600 litres storage capacity to prevent disruption in distribution. But, the scheme was still incomplete in many areas.