Tirupati: Severe shortage of drinking water poses a potential threat to the temple town of Tirumala with the waning of water reserves and the failure of the monsoon.
The circumstances are so grave that the water accessible in all the five dams at Tirumala is probably going to last just for 127 days, if the water is pumped at the rate of 40.3 lakh gallons every day approximately. The temple town’s daily requirement is put at around 32 to 35 lakh gallons and on weekends, when the devotee rush is high, the hill shrine requires 35 to 40 lakh gallons of water.
At present the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which hosts 75,000 to 80,000 devotees on normal days and over 1 lakh on weekends, has been drawing 40 per cent of the total required water every day from the Papavinasanam dam, which is the biggest water source for Tirumala.
And, the balance requirement is being supplemented through the water drawn from the remaining dams including Kumaradhara and Pasupudhara twin dams, Gogarbham and Akasaganga dams, which were situated in and around the hill shrine.
According to official data, as on April 28, the water levels in all the five dams in and around Tirumala had plummeted, with the total available water close to 5,229 lakh gallons as against the full capacity of 13,880 lakh gallons.
The water stored in Papavinasanam was measured as 2,055 lakh gallons as against its full capacity of 5,215 lakh gallons, while Kumaradhara dam has 2,412 lakh gallons of water as against its full capacity of 4,036 lakh gallons.
The water level in Akasaganga dam has touched rock bottom as against its full capacity to store 670 lakh gallons, while the Gogarbham dam, which earlier used to be the only source of drinking water to Tirumala, has 169 lakh gallons of water as against its full capacity of 2,683 lakh gallons.
In Pasupudhara, 593 lakh gallons of water is stored as against its full capacity to store 1,276 lakh gallons. The officials are saying that under the prevailing situation, the total quantity of water will last to meet the drinking water needs of pilgrims for 127 days only.
Meanwhile, TTD has been resting its hopes on the Kalyani dam, from where the temple authority draws water during acute shortage at Tirumala. Kalyani dam is the prime source of drinking water of Tirupati.
It was learnt that in all likelihood, TTD will pump 20 lakh gallons of water to cater the needs of inbound pilgrims at Tirumala during this summer. But, a severe shortage of water also looms large over the Kalyani dam, which is believed to be having sufficient water only for six months.
If there is any excess drawing at this dam, it may further lead in multiplying the difficulties, it is felt.
