NIZAMABAD: Drinking water supply to 116 villages in Armoor and Balkonda Assembly constituencies and to Ar-moor and Kamareddy municipal towns has be-en stopped as the water level has gone down to dead storage in the Sriram Sagar Project (SRSP).
The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation department and the water works wings of mun-icipalities expressed their inability to supply drinking water.
The district administration has made alternative arrangements by hiring agriculture submersible pump sets and private pumps for the drinking water needs in villages.
Pipelines have been ex-tended to provide water for the needy and water tankers have been pressed into service. The water level at SRSP went down to 1048 feet on Wednesday and supply to 116 villages was stopped.
RWS officials set up the Jalalpur protected water scheme to cater to the drinking water needs of the villages but in vain. Meanwhile, supply to Armoor and Kamareddy municipal towns was also stopped.
Sustained water level for these drinking water schemes is 1050 ft. People of the two to-wns and 116 villages are now worried about their drinking water needs for the next three months of summer.
They say that they have never experienced such a water crisis. Speaking to this newspaper, SRSP executive engineer Mr P. Rama Rao said that drinking water supply in Nizamabad district from SRSP had automatically stopped due to lack of water.
The Dead storage level is 1047.60 ft and evaporation losses are .04 tmc per month, Mr Rama Rao explained. To restore water supply to the 116 villages, repair works are being taken up at an approach canal of SRSP, he added. As per the project water plan, there is no supply in Nizamabad district as of now, he said.
Meanwhile, SRSP officials continued supply to Nirmal town and 36 surrounding villages in Adilabad district through Saraswathi canal. Due to spill level water supplied through Kakatiya canal, supply continued for Metpally, Korutla and Jagtial towns in Karimnagar districts and a few villages along Kakatiya canal.
It is hoped that the present levels will be enough to cater to the drinking water needs till June, 2016. Kamareddy municipal chairperson Ms P. Sushma said that they have made alternative arrangements for drinking water. Private and municipal tankers have been engaged and pipelines have been extended from the outskirts of town to problematic areas, she said.
"District collector Yogita Rana, leader of opposition in legislative council Shabbir Ali and minister K.T. Rama Rao have taken the initiative to resume water supply in Kamareddy town" she said.
RWS officials, meanwhile, hired agriculture submersible pumps for drinking water supply in villages. They also engaged private bores for community needs. Water tankers have been pressed into service where acute water shortage prevails.
RWS superintending engineer Mr Venkateshwarlu said that they had set up a feeder channel in SRSP to get the water from dead storage level. "We are taking every step to supply drinking water till summer ends," he said.
SRSP water level
- SRSP full reservoir level 1091 feet
- Present level (16.03.2016) 1048 ft
- Storage water 5.15 tmc ft
- Daily evaporation losses 146 cusecs
- Water supply stopped to Jalalpur water scheme (116 villages), Armoor, Kamareddy municipal towns
- Water supply continued for Saraswati and Kakatiya canals for drinking water needs
