Vijayawada: Hundreds of people, including officers from various government departments, along with the police, volunteers of NGOs, youth, students and teachers, participated in the “Nenu Saitham Krishnamma Suddhi Sevalo” (I too get involved in cleaning Krishna water) organised by the district administration, headed by Krishna district collector A.Md. Imtiaz, here on Thursday.
As part of the two-day programme, canals of Krishna river would be cleaned on Friday too. Mr Imtiaz, city police commissioner Dwaraka Tirumala Rao and municipal commissioner M. Rama Rao formally inaugurated the programme at Screw Bridge at Ramalingeswaranagar.
Mr Imtiaz said that the Krishna river supplies irrigation water to 15 lakh hectares and drinking water to 40 lakh people. He also said that the Bandar, Ryves and Eluru canals that pass through the city supply drinking water to 25 lakh people in 450 panchayats.
He said people living on the bunds of these canals should not contaminate the water by dumping waste into the canals.
Mr Imtiaz said that special awareness camps would be held for women on purification of River Krishna.
The collector said that they had identified 15 spots that could contaminate the water in the canals and appointed one senior officer at each point to keep vigil.
Mr Imtiaz said that it was the first time that Krishnamma Suddhi was being organised in the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation limits.
Later, the programme will be extended to other places in the district that the canals pass through.
Vijayawada police commissioner Ch. Dwaraka Tirumala Rao said that cleaning of water and maintenance of the canals would help in improving the health of the people using the water. He said he was happy to see the police personnel take part in the water cleaning programme.
Mr Rama Rao said that people should understand the need to segregate waste into dry and wet categories as it would help immensely in maintaining the balance in environment.
He said that Krishnamma Suddhi would be continued and that the programme would be held for two days every month.
On the occasion, the volunteers pledged to protect the purity of water by restraining from dumping waste into them.
Joint collector Kritika Sukla, JC-2 Babu Rao, DTC E. Meera Prasad, water resources superintendent engineer A.V.L.N. Chowdary, district tourism officer Velaga Joshim, Dy. DEO Konda Ravi Kumar were present.
Vijayawada sub-collector Misha Singh and others participated in the programme at Krishna Lanka, Bandar canal.
Later, all the participants distributed pamphlets to create awareness among the public about the need to maintain the cleanliness of water.
